There's Always A Catch
by Karma Rue Lovegood Everdeen
Summary: The Enchantress always did bite off more than she could chew. This time after being defeated by the Avengers she has one last parting shot; make them watch movies about their lives to try and break up the group. It doesn't really go her way. Fem!Tony, Male!Pepper, Watching Avengers Assemble, Iron Man 1 & 2, Thor & Captain America.
1. By The Grace Of Amora

**A/N – Okay, so the basic gist of this story is the Avengers watching first Avengers Assemble, then Iron Man 1 & 2, Thor & Captain America with some changes to the movies. Mainly AA and IM 1 & 2. Within this story there are two genderbent characters, they are Tony who becomes Toni, and Pepper who becomes Piper. I can't think of anything else you need to know right now so on with the background.**

Chapter 1 – By The Grace Of Amora

None of the Avengers really had any idea when Stark Tower (or Avengers Tower as Toni had taken to calling it) had become the main base for the newly formed Avengers Initiative team. Indeed Antoinette Stark seemed to be the only one who had actually predicted this outcome.

Bruce had been the first to end up at Avengers Tower as Toni had promised him a lift to the airport but instead drove straight back to Stark Tower (as it was then) and set him up in R&D which Bruce found to be candyland just as she had said that time on the helicarrier. As was Toni's intention after getting absorbed in a million different projects and randomly creating things with Toni every other day he had been unable to leave. Of course at first he had still harboured serious misgivings about staying in one place for too long but Toni was ready for every eventuality and had Hulk proofed several rooms which he could escape to if he felt the need. Even back then Toni had been converting the top floors of the building into a floor for every member of the Avengers despite Bruce's confusion. He had thought they wouldn't be coming back.

Of course the next person to move in had been Natasha. It was hardly a surprise that she had been next for Natasha and Toni had become very good friends when Natasha had been posing as Piper's assistant. Apparently it was something to do with dress shopping and being drinking buddies but the rest weren't sure they wanted to know. Clint moved in the very next day as he had followed Natasha back to the Tower and decided if she was moving in so was he.

Steve had been the last Avenger who was still on Earth who hadn't moved in to the Tower as he had been off exploring the differences of today's world to the one of the 40's. Eventually he had become overwhelmed with all the new creations and as he had nobody to explain them to him he had retreated to Avengers Tower for a reprieve. And seeing as he had everybody there to explain things to him (even if Toni kept making new things and leaving them lying around confusing him more at times) he hadn't bothered to leave either.

Even Thor had ended up living there eventually seeing as Toni had offered Erik Selvig, Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis jobs in her research labs as she felt they were intelligent enough to get their own new lab if not free reign of the building like Bruce. Seeing as Thor now didn't have to travel around to meet up with his friends and theAllfather had apparently grown tired of letting Thor use the Bifrost all the time he remained on Earth to help his fellow Avengers. That meant he needed a permanent place of residence and Avengers Tower was the most convenient place.

But despite the endless comings and goings of Piper Potts and indeed the other scientists the only people in the Tower when the city was attacked by The Enchantress were the Avengers themselves. Jane was in Norway again at yet another observatory consulting with Darcy assisting and Erik was in California making a presentation about thermonuclear astrophysics. Piper was in a Stark Industries board meeting in DC at Toni's insistence.

They had their work cut out for them fighting the Enchantress as she insisted she should be called. Of course this meant that Toni had taken to calling her Amora just to irritate her. If this had been a battle from a while ago the other Avengers would have attempted to stop her but they now knew that Toni was attempting to frustrate Amora enough that she'd make a rash move resulting in a mistake. Indeed eventually it came and Amora was being hauled off to SHIELD headquarters where they had the device that Toni had built to send enemies back to Asgard. It only worked on Asgardians which meant that Toni had safely made sure that SHIELD couldn't use it as 'retaliation.' Hence why it also only worked to take someone to Asgard just in case someone from there was intelligent enough to override the system.

But Amora had one last parting shot to give to the Avengers. She had managed to send a flash of pink magic hurtling towards the living room of Avengers Tower although it didn't appear to cause any damage. Still the Avengers immediately rushed to the tower to find out what exactly it had done if anything. Bruce changed back as they ran forever grateful that Toni had developed a material that the Hulk couldn't rip when he came out.

Upon entering Avengers Tower Toni had JARVIS bring up a report of the effects of magic on the building and it revealed that Amora's magic had formed a small box that sat on the coffee table in the living room. She instantly set him to work scanning the box whilst he took them up to the twenty-ninth floor in the elevator. Upon their arrival Natasha instantly drew a gun (Clint had the audacity to ask where she had kept it) and pointed it at the box waiting for conformation from JARVIS about what was in it.

"I have completed an in-depth scan on the item," JARVIS said causing Steve to jump a little (he still wasn't completely used to the AI), "the box contains a Digital Versatile Disc which has traces of magic but no implements of harm, it is free of weaponry, poison, excess electricity, traps…"

"Okay, thanks JARVIS," Toni cut in, "there's a note on top. Could you bring that up on the screen please?"

"Certainly Miss Stark," JARVIS said as a hologram version of the note appeared. Seeing as JARVIS had confirmed that the box posed no present risk Natasha lowered her gun wondering why Amora would put something in Avengers Tower that wasn't dangerous. Now that she was sure everyone was listening Toni began reading Amora's note aloud.

"_Avengers,_

_There are more ways than one to win a war and this is mine. This DVD contains copies of your lives as you became the superheroes that the world knows you as today. It will randomise after each movie and become a different person's life. Watch it as far through as you can and see how your team crumbles._

_The Enchantress."_

"Why would we watch a movie of ourselves when we are not being forced to do so?" Thor said in his usual strange English.

"Because Amora is counting on curiosity, you can't lie about it; each one of us wants to know what's on that disk now," Bruce sighed.

"He's right," Toni said, "we're going to end up watching it either way, JARVIS!"

"Of course Miss Stark, full scan of Digital Versatile Disk's contents complete playing movie number one, Avengers Assemble," JARVIS said. As he did the lights in the room dimmed to movie settings and the screen switched on to show a picture of the Tesseract.

"_The Tesseract has awakened." _


	2. Meet Hawkeye

Chapter 2 – Meet Hawkeye 

**A/n – Frankly I'm astonished by the reception that this story has received when I only put the first chapter up very recently. I'm very flattered. Here's a little clarification on a few things that I feel I need to mention. 1. Toni's personality is not the same as Tony's – I thought I should make this clear because the fact that she's a girl influences things, 2. I have very set views of my headcanon for the original Tony so those will probably show up, 3. There will be extra scenes but I won't be removing any, 4. The scenes with the most changes will of course be Toni's (especially her introduction, you have been warned although the lines will be mostly the same who's saying them will be different)**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books – I'm glad the start has you interested. To answer your question, I own the Avengers 6-Movie Collection Box Set and I've taken most of the dialogue aside from a few alterations and new scenes straight from the subtitles unless I believe they're wrong. I'm flattered that you're making an exception for my story :)**

**Guest – Thank you for one of the first kind anonymous reviews I've gotten. I'm glad you have hope for this story and hope I can live up to any expectations you have. **

**youwannabekate – Believe me I have no idea either but I hope you enjoy my version of the AU**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX – Yes Toni is currently with Piper in this story :) **

You could practically feel the tension that was emanating throughout the silent room as the sinister voice made its first statement. None of them really wanted to watch these movies because what if Amora had been right and this split them apart. Clint was arguably the most nervous for he didn't want to know what he had done whilst under Loki's control. He wasn't sure he could cope with the guilt which he would end up bearing; it didn't matter if he knew that he had no choice in the matter. And despite Toni's insistence that they should get watching the disk over with there were several things that she thought might be in here that she was uncomfortable with getting out.

Yet neither of them stopped watching as the voiceover continued:

"_It is on a little world, a human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will."_

"I think we're familiar enough with it now," Clint muttered but it was quiet enough in the room that everyone heard the comment and nodded in agreement.

_The scene changed to show Loki receiving his sceptre, "he is ready to lead."_

Thor's face darkened at the first sign of his brother in the film. The other Avengers had a feeling that he would be doing a lot of that over the course of the movie. Loki hadn't even visibly done anything yet so they feared how Thor would react to his actions from when he wasn't present.

"_And our force, our Chitauri, will follow." One of the many warriors of the Chitauri was shown before the view expanded to show the sheer number of alien warriors._

"_A world will be his, the universe, yours."_

As the screen switched back to another shot of the Tesseract Bruce began to muse out loud, "so who was Loki really working for? This just proved that he wasn't really in charge of the invasion."

"I was thinking the same thing," Toni responded.

"_And the humans, what can they do but burn?"_

_The scene changed to display a helicopter flying over a cliff face as the headquarters of SHIELD were shown. Over a PA system you could hear, "All personnel, the evacuation order has been confirmed. Hundreds of vans were making their way off the premises and the workers were rushing off site in droves._

Clint flinched. All those people, some of them he knew, how many of them had made it out?_  
_

_The helicopter made its landing at the front of the building where Agent Coulson was waiting for it. Agent Hill and Nick Fury disembarked and made their way over to the waiting Agent._

"_How bad is it?" Fury asked clearly concerned._

"Very," Toni muttered darkly.

"_That's the problem, sir, we don't know," was Coulson's prompt response. _

_The scene changed again to show an elevator descending as Coulson began to explain the situation, "Dr Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago."_

Thor stiffened again at the mention of his friend and Clint thought this was probably because just like Clint he didn't want to see the result of one of Loki's possessions.

"_NASA didn't authorise Selvig to go to test phase," Fury said accusingly._

His fellow Avengers wouldn't have thought Thor's eyes could get any darker than they were already but they were proved wrong as Fury brought up the (to Thor) frankly ridiculous possibility that Selvig had performed illegal tests on the Tesseract.

"_He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room," Coulson clarified, "spontaneous event."_

"_It just turned itself on," Agent Hill said sceptically._

"_Where are the energy levels now?" Fury asked._

"_Climbing," Coulson said seriously, "when Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered evac."_

"_How long to get everyone out?" Fury inquired._

Clint had been wondering that himself. It would be one way of reassuring himself that he hadn't done too much damage if the evac time was relatively short.

"_Campus should be clear in the next half-hour," Coulson informed them._

"That was never going to be enough time," Natasha said coldly speaking up for the first time since they had started watching. Clint's stomach lurched.

"_Do better," Fury stated._

_Coulson nodded before turning back to the people who were busy evacuating apparently to give direction._

"_Sir, evacuation may be futile," Hill pointed out as the pair descended a staircase._

"_We should tell them to go back to sleep?" Fury asked his tone dripping with sarcasm._

"I can't believe I'm saying this but Fury does kind of have a point there," Toni admitted.

"But so does Hill unfortunately," Natasha chimed in.

"_If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance," Hill insisted._

"And there's the root of the problem," Bruce sighed, "that thing was never safe. For anyone."

"_I need you to make sure the Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out," Fury said ignoring her previous statement. _

"HE'S MAKING THAT A PRIORITY," Steve shouted outraged, "THEY COULD HAVE USED THE EXTRA TIME TO GET MORE PEOPLE OUT!"

"Steve, please try not to deafen us," Toni said rolling her eyes, "I agree it's idiotic but we can't do anything about it now."

"_Sir, is that really a priority right now?" Hill asked._

Steve nodded in approval glad that at least one principal member of the SHIELD team seemed to have their priorities in the right order according to some sort of moral system that actually made sense.

"_Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone," Fury said authoritatively._

"Now you see why I really don't like him," Toni said with a scowl, "the only people worse are that Council that claims to be in charge."

"_Yes, sir," Hill said although she was clearly unhappy with the decision. She walked past Fury obviously heading for the lower levels and told two soldiers, "with me."_

_Fury watched them go before entering the Tesseract's area and saying, "talk to me doctor."_

"_Director," Erik Selvig said as he stepped down from his place in front of the Tesseract._

"_Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury asked._

Toni used this opportunity to mutter several things that she knew for certain about Fury under her breath to the amusement of Bruce who was seated next to her. He agreed with her assessment although he was reluctant to agree with her vocally.

"_The Tesseract is misbehaving," Selvig stated plainly._

This managed to elicit an amused snort from Clint who clearly found the dry comment at least slightly funny. The others weren't similarly impressed but they were glad that Clint seemed to have cheered up at least a little as the next section of the film was bound to be hard on him.

_One of the scientists touched the Tesseract with a metal rod and it immediately flared up sending a spark of blue energy flying. "Is that supposed to be funny?" Fury said disapprovingly._

"_No, it's not funny at all," Selvig said as he walked forward to meet Fury, "The Tesseract is not only active, she's behaving."_

"Should have just left it in the ocean," Steve said bitterly.

"_I assume you pulled the plug," Fury said inadvertently showing his ignorance of the science of the situation._

"_She's an energy source," Selvig pointed out, "we turn off the power she turns it back on."_

"You'd think Fury would have picked up that fact by now after all these years working for SHIELD," Toni mocked as yet another detail added to how unimpressed she was by the man.

"_If she reaches peak level…" Selvig continued._

_But Fury interrupted his speech, "we prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space."_

"_But we don't have the harness," Selvig said blandly, "my calculations are far from complete."_

"They should never have started anything on it without a failsafe if they insisted on starting at all," Bruce pointed out matter-of-factly.

"_And she's throwing off interference, radiation," Selvig continued, "nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."_

"_That can be harmful," Fury said._

"Over an extended period of time," Bruce said, "they weren't planning on being there long enough for there to be a long term effect. I would know."

"_Where's Agent Barton?" Fury inquired crossly._

Clint was using the entirety of his spy training at this stage to conceal the fact that he was severely on edge at the thought of entering the scene. Those moments in the warehouse were the last few he could remember clearly until Natasha had brought him back.

"_The Hawk?" Selvig scoffed, "up in his nest as usual."_

"I still do not understand your fixation with high places Friend Barton," Thor stated in agreement with his friend. Clint simply rolled his eyes and tried not to think about what he would be witnessing soon.

_Clint was shown clinging onto a railing near the roof of the room. As Fury's voice came through on his radio saying, "Agent Barton report!"_

_He was shown sliding down a rope to reach the ground as Fury said, "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things."_

"_Well, I see better from a distance," Clint said dismissively._

"So that is why!" Thor said relieved that the movie had answered his question.

"_Have you seen anything that might set this off?" Fury queried._

_One of the physicists peered out from behind a screen saying, "Doctor, it's spiking again."_

_Clint continued speaking as if not having heard the interruption, "no one's come or gone. And Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IMs."_

"You suspected him," Thor said incredulously.

"It's part of our job Thor," Natasha replied, "we have to suspect everybody but ourselves."

_Clint turned back to the Tesseract. "If there was any tampering it wasn't at this end," he clarified._

"'_At this end'" Fury said frowning._

"_Yeah, the Cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides," Clint pointed out._

"That's good, well done Clint," Toni said with a smile, "nobody else figured that out."

"Yeah but if I'd figured it out sooner," Clint sighed.

"You had no need to Clint, don't do this to yourself again," Natasha said sternly.

_Selvig was typing data into a computer as he muttered, "not yet," when the screen showed the Tesseract send out another flare of blue light before it began to send out more and more of them so they became a constant stream. The scene changed to show the building shaking as Coulson steadied himself and Hill looked up upon hearing the disturbance. _

_The Cube continued to flare more and more ferociously as the others viewed it. The light began to turn as it formed a vortex of blue energy which after a few seconds fired a beam across the room._

The six people in the room flinched instinctively as they knew that this signified the arrival of Loki. Even those who hadn't been there personally had easily been able to figure it out.

_The beam of energy began to form a portal showing the darkness of space. Eventually it fluctuated as it became unstable and exploded sending blue light sweeping across the room and hitting the people who were there. As the remainder of the light flew upwards to the ceiling a glowing blue figure was clearly visible kneeling where the portal had been._

"Loki," Clint hissed despite the fact that nobody needed to be told who it was to know.

_The soldiers holding guns in the room began to advance slowly on the figure as he slowly looked up. He rose to his feet holding his sceptre in his right hand. Fury shouted to him in alarm, "Sir, please put down the spear." _

"Can't even tell a spear from a sceptre," Toni said rolling her eyes. She was trying to bring a little comic relief but gave up when she saw it obviously wasn't working.

_Loki simply stared at his weapon before raising it and firing in the direction of Fury and Clint. Clint thankfully pushed Fury out of the range of the projectile in time for it just to hit some scientific equipment. Immediately the soldiers began firing at Loki but he simply launched himself at the first one and took him down before using his sceptre to ricochet bullets back into two more. He fired a bolt of energy at the female physicist and she collapsed to the floor._

Thor was clearly become severely unsettled as he watched his brother kill innocent people in cold blood. Yes, he had been involved in the battle against the Chitauri but Loki hadn't actually killed anyone within Thor's eye line there. He hadn't quite been able to comprehend how far Loki had fallen until that moment.

_The fight continued with Clint and the other Agents firing on Loki but he simply let their rounds phase through him before firing energy bolts back. He kicked one man into a wall as he was nearby. Every person in the room was on the ground as sparks flew dangerously from the damaged equipment. Some of them were clearly still alive but were in much worse condition than Loki was._

_Clint managed to scramble to his feet just as Loki came up to him sceptre in hand and used the other to push Clint's attacking hand to the side as he jibed, "you have heart." _

Clint winced at the jibe as his ability to fight back had clearly been what had made Loki decide to take him over instead of killing him. Death would have been a better option than being Loki's overgrown puppet.

_Fury looked up from his place near the cube as Loki's sceptre met Clint's jacket directly above his heart. The blue energy of the sceptre travelled up Clint's neck as his eyes flashed pitch black before they cleared to show the light blue dancing across his irises. _

Clint found that watching this scene was rather like a train wreck as he didn't want to know what happened after this moment but found himself unable to look away. He felt a comforting hand placed on his arm and managed to give Natasha a brief smile but nothing else.

_Clint stepped back from Loki and returned his gun to its holster. Fury who looked horrified upon seeing this reached out to grab the Tesseract from its setting and place it in his fortified briefcase. _

"I'd rather have seen it with him than with Loki," Toni said suddenly, "and that's saying something because I really hate Fury almost all of the time."

_The scene changed back to Loki taking over one of the officials on the scene as Fury attempted to walk out with the Tesseract. "Please don't," Loki said relatively calmly turning to face Fury, "I still need that."_

"_This doesn't have to get any messier," Fury explained calmly._

"You mean he didn't even try and find out what Loki had done to us," Clint said his long standing faith in SHIELD faltering every minute he watched Fury's actions.

"_Of course it does," Loki said matter-of-factly, "I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki, of Asgard and I am burdened with glorious purpose."_

_The scene showed Selvig turning away from his dead assistant to look at Loki the minute he mentioned Asgard._

"I guess he was thinking of you there Thor," Bruce said quietly to the demigod.

"_Loki, brother of Thor," Selvig said stepping towards the scene. _

_Loki did not look at all pleased that someone had made this association. "We have no quarrel with your people," Fury attempted to reason as the blue energy from the portal's explosion gathered above his head._

"I seem to remember you saying something similar Thor on the helicarrier," Steve mused.

Thor simply nodded in response obviously not wishing to speak until at least this scene was over.

"_An ant has no quarrel with a boot," Loki said scathingly._

"_Are you planning to step on us?" Fury said disbelievingly._

"I would have thought that would have been obvious by now," Toni sighed.

"_I come with glad tidings of a world made free," Loki said clearly believing what he was saying._

"_Free from what?" Fury said not wanting to back down._

"_Freedom," Loki stated simply, "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart," he quickly turned upon saying this and used the sceptre to turn Selvig before finishing up with, "you will know peace."_

"That does not make any sense," Steve said baffled.

"It did to him," Clint said bitterly, "and if you believe something that strongly you can convince yourself it's true."

"_Yeah you say 'peace'," Fury said sarcastically trying not to draw attention to the energy build up but the possessed Clint had clearly already noticed it, "I kind of think you mean the other thing."_

"_Sir, Director Fury is stalling! This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us," Clint said in a monotone as the energy flared, "he means to bury us."_

"_Like the pharaohs of old," Fury said smugly._

"_He's right," Selvig called out, "the portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."_

Clint flinched at the reminder that there wasn't going to be enough time for everyone to get off site. If he hadn't been taken over with the others Fury wouldn't have had to stall for as long as they could have come up with another strategy.

"_Well, then," Loki said calmly. And with that Clint raised his gun and fired a single shot at Fury which hit its mark. With that he picked up the briefcase containing the Tesseract and walked out with Loki, Selvig and the turned Agent. _

While the other Avengers didn't particularly like Fury at this point and they knew Clint probably didn't either it didn't stop them pitying him for having to watch himself injure the Director even if it was under mind control.

**A/n: So far it's going to be a chapter per scene in the movie but I may change my mind later.**


	3. Meet Black Widow

Chapter 3 – Meet Black Widow

**A/n – This is probably the fastest I've ever updated a multi-chapter story :) This contains two scenes as Scene 2 of the film is relatively short.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Glad you liked :)**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked the way I wrote the scene. Toni's character changes will be mostly in her own personal scenes and around Bruce because I couldn't write out her witty exchanges with Cap :D**

**Girly: Well here's your update, glad you're enjoying it so far.**

**Guest: Yes, that's going to be one of my favourite scenes to write I believe especially with one of the things I'm planning for the Iron Man 2 movie :) **

**MelodySnapePotter: Female Tony is always fun to read and she's just as fun to write.**

**General Question: Anyone want romance other than Toni/Piper in this story? I'm willing to throw in a secondary love interest for Toni or for someone else if you want it. **

_The scene changed to show the group making their way out of the building into the lower level, the briefcase now in the hands of Selvig. "I need these vehicles," Clint said pointing at the stationary cars._

_Agent Hill seemed to be confused as to why the group were loading into the truck and asked, "Who's that?"_

"At least she didn't just let you all go without question," Natasha said approvingly.

"_They didn't tell me," Clint said matter-of-factly._

"Unfortunately when it comes to SHIELD that is actually a non-suspicious valid answer," Toni scoffed, "now you see why I'm forever hacking in to their systems."

_As Hill turned away clearly accepting this explanation for now Fury's voice came through on her radio, "Hill!" The scene turned to show Fury sitting on the floor of the Tesseract room pulling the bullet out of his clearly bulletproof jacket, "do you copy? Barton has turned."_

_Clint who had overheard the conversation was ready for Hill turning back around and fired a shot at her which she dodged. _

Clint had a feeling that this was just the beginning of the people who he would attempt to kill or would succeed in killing that would only add to the red in his ledger whether SHIELD counted them or not. Hill was one of the Agents that he worked with most often because she was high up in SHIELD hence he felt a lot guiltier for trying to kill her than he had about shooting at Fury.

_Clint fired one more shot in her general direction before getting behind the wheel of the truck and hightailing it out of the area. Hill attempted to fire at the truck to stop it but it collided with the bodywork instead of any windows or people within. _

Clint supposed this should make him feel better seeing as she had been prepared to kill him off as well but it didn't. He knew she was only following protocols for what should happen to rogue agents. Fury hadn't clearly told her that he had no control over his actions after all.

_The screen showed the portal above Fury growing more and more every second it was still open. It pulled the metal equipment in the room up into it as Fury hurriedly exited telling Hill, "they have the Tesseract! Shut them down!"_

_Upon hearing the order Hill threw her radio into another one of the waiting cars and jumped into the driver's seat to chase the other vehicle. Other cars were also following the one Loki occupied as Agents shot at Loki through the windows as Clint steered the truck away from them as best he could. _

The team could tell that none of them (especially Clint) would be at all comfortable watching this movie until at least this scene ended although they had no idea what would be shown next.

_Loki used his advantage of having the sceptre to blow up one of the cars which flipped over as it lost control and skidded in front of the others forming a blockade. The magic of the portal was shown to be completely unstable as it twisted and turned within the chamber as Fury ran away from it as fast as he could whilst sporting an injury._

_Outside the building the ground was shaking as boxes of equipment that Coulson was helping to move scattered across the ground. The soldiers reached down to retrieve it but Coulson stopped them with a quick, "okay, let's go. No, leave it. Go!"_

"That's Phil all over," Toni said with a weak smile. He had been the only person at SHIELD other than Natasha that she had gotten along with before she had met Clint and she missed him.

_Clint continued to drive his truck along the exit route when Agent Hill's car swung out in front of them as she pulled some risky manoeuvres and managed to get her car bumper to bumper with Clint's as he pushed her backwards. She took a shot at them through the windshield whilst Clint fired back through the open side window of the truck._

_Coulson clambered into the back of another truck and radioed Fury, "we're clear upstairs, sir. You need to go!"_

_Fury made it out of the front door and clambered into the helicopter that had been waiting on him just as the helipad began to crack along with the rest of the ground. _

"This is just another reason why you shouldn't mess with things when you don't know what they are capable of," Steve fumed.

_The gun battle between Clint and Hill was interrupted as Clint ran out of bullets and went back to focusing on driving managing to jolt Hill off to the side once more. As Hill continued her pursuit the ground began to rise up as the portal contracted before exploding out the way and sending energy rushing through the SHIELD headquarters. It ripped apart the ground forming a ripple that travelled outwards at a rapid pace. The entire building began to sink into the ground as the truck Coulson was travelling in jolted after managing to clear the radius of the implosion. Fury watched in dismay from the helicopter as the last of the building sank into the dirt._

"Well, it's dramatic," Toni said nonchalantly trying not to betray how horrified she was by the image and not completely succeeding as her eyes betrayed her.

_The road behind Hill was falling down too but she was just managing to stay ahead of it. Sparks from electrical debris were hitting the car and making it hard to stay driving in a straight line. Similarly the road behind Coulson collapsed in on itself as he watched. A line of debris fell in front of Hill and a similar line behind trapping her car and making sure she couldn't continue the chase as Clint raced through the exit doors only to see Fury's helicopter flying above._

Clint knew that Hill was alive having seen her since the Battle for New York but he still worried about how she was going to get out of a tricky situation. How far had the collapse continued? He knew that Coulson had died but everyone had refused to tell him how so did his truck get caught up in the blast.

_Clint turned the truck down a side road knowing that they had a better chance of avoiding the helicopter which was closing in if they deviated from the main route out of SHIELD headquarters. As he took to the grass Fury threw open the door of the helicopter and drew his gun on the truck. Several shots collided with the windshield and the glass splintered but didn't break. As they drew closer Loki used the sceptre to blast the helicopter and set it on fire._

"At least they were flying low enough that jumping from the helicopter is possible without killing yourself," Natasha interjected.

_As the helicopter spun out due to loss of control Fury launched himself from the craft and hit the ground. The helicopter itself followed as its still operating blades sliced up the ground where it fell. Fury fired several more shots after the truck but it had reached another road and hurtled away with Loki still clinging onto the back._

_Coulson's voice called over Fury's radio, "Director? Director Fury, do you copy?"_

Clint breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that Coulson's truck had made it out of the implosion but until Coulson was actually shown dying Clint could not rest easy for it could still have been his fault.

"_The Tesseract is with a hostile force," Fury replied, "I have men down. Hill?"_

_Hill was shown clambering from the crushed wreck of her car, "a lot of men still under," she replied, "I don't know how many survivors."_

The Avengers had known this was coming but that did not mean they were immune to the news. If only SHIELD had left the Tesseract well enough alone and locked it up somewhere it couldn't do any harm. It was their interference with it that had caused the Battle for New York. Clint was obviously the most effective as that had been his fear the moment he had heard the evacuation time.

"_Sound a general call," Fury said, "I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase."_

"At least he set aside some people to look for survivors I guess," Bruce said softly. He knew how unlikely it was they would find any as the injuries obtained from being trapped under such a collapse would be severe.

"_Roger that," Hill replied. _

_Having given Hill her instructions Fury directed his next statement to Agent Coulson, "Coulson, get back to base. This is a Level Seven. As of right now we are at war."_

"_What do we do?" Coulson said clearly worried. _

_Fury lowered his label as the words 'Avengers Assemble' took over the screen._

"If that was the introduction, I do not wish to know what other parts of this movie will be like," Thor stated.

"You and me both, big guy, you and me both," Toni sighed.

_The scene changed to show a freight train travelling past Russian signs. The interior of a building directly next to the tracks was slowly revealed where Natasha sat on a chair surrounded by men in black clothing._

"You may need subtitles for this scene," Natasha said matter-of-factly.

"JARVIS enable subtitles for all scenes not in English just to make things easier on people who aren't originally from those countries or who haven't learned the language," Toni stated to her AI. Personally she spoke a large amount of languages because they were one of the few things that didn't come naturally to her and learning them actually gave her brain a challenge. She was sure the next scene would be in Russian which was a language she had learned upon meeting Natasha.

"_This is not how I wanted this evening to go," spoke one man who was clearly the leader of the group._

Thor, Steve and Bruce appeared to be worried about Natasha's capture seeing as they had never seen her do a proper interrogation. Toni and Clint did not share their concerns as they both knew Natasha well and were not prone to worrying about her over something as simple as this.

"_I know how you wanted this evening to go. Believe me this is better," Natasha said darkly._

This elicited a chuckle from both Clint and Toni who were able to appreciate the humour of the situation. They were sure that Natasha's dry humour would have appealed to the others more if they weren't so stressed from seeing her captured right after the previous scene.

"_Who are you working for?" the leader insisted trying to ignore her comment, "Lermentov, yes?" One of the thugs leaned over and pushed the chair Natasha was tied to back over the gap in the floor in manner that was supposed to be threatening. "Does he think we have to go through him to move our cargo?" the leader continued. _

_Natasha's expression looked totally innocent as she said, "I thought General Solohob is in charge of the export business."_

"_Solohob," he chuckled, "a bagman. A front. Your outdated information betrays you. The famous Black Widow and she turns out to be simply another pretty face."_

"Friend Natasha, how does this man know who you are?" Thor exclaimed.

"I'm pretty famous in Russia Thor," Natasha replied simply.

"_You really think I'm pretty?" Natasha asked innocently although a hint of danger was evident in her eyes._

_One of the thugs stepped forward after an indication and pulled Natasha's mouth open as the leader continued, "Tell Lermentov we don't need him to move the tanks. Tell him he is out. Well…" he stopped to pick up a tool and reverted to English for his next statement, "you may have to write it down."_

"He was going to pull out your tongue," Steve exclaimed horrified.

Even Toni wasn't entirely unaffected by the news. Her own experiences with torture made her prone to anger when it was threatened upon those she cared about. She knew Natasha was more than able to get out of there before it happened but still wanted to hunt down this moron and kick his ass.

_Suddenly a cell phone began to ring in the background and one of the thugs took it out of his pocket and answered it, "it's for her," he stated in Russian. The leader threw down the tool and reached for the phone. "You listen carefully…" he began but Coulson's voice on the end of the line interrupted him, "you're at 1-14 Silensky Plaza, 3__rd__ floor. We have an F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby."_

"And there goes Phil with his perfect timing," Toni said with a smile.

_Obviously deciding that the threat was genuine the leader passed the phone to Natasha who held it between her cheek and her shoulder as Coulson resumed talking, "we need you to come in."_

"_Are you kidding? I'm working," Natasha replied._

This caused three sighs of relief to come from the Avengers who hadn't already realised this as they now knew that Natasha knew exactly what she was doing in this situation.

"_This takes precedence," Coulson insisted._

"_I'm in the middle of an interrogation. This moron is giving me everything," Natasha stated._

"_I don't give everything," the leader stated but Natasha just threw him an incredulous look and went back to her conversation._

"So that's where Toni picked up that look from," Steve said only to be met with it in stereo as Natasha and Toni both gave it to him at once. He immediately fell silent and the two women went back to watching the movie.

"_Look, you can't pull me out of this right now," Natasha said._

"_Natasha…" Coulson said before visibly hesitating, "Barton's been compromised."_

_The expression on Natasha's face instantly changed and she changed her tune to, "let me put you on hold." As the man she had been interrogation reached out to take the phone from her two well-placed kicks took him down. She stood up whilst still attached to the chair and swung it around to take down a second man. Then rolling neatly across the floor to the third man she dropped the chair on his foot and flung her head backwards to hit him on the nose._

Whilst all this was going on Thor had begun to cheer Natasha on whilst the others simply rolled their eyes at him and continued to watch the carnage that was these incompetents attempting to battle someone with superior training.

_One final sweep with the chair took his legs out from under him as Natasha moved on. Coulson was shown on the other end of the line listening passively to the shouts of the men. Back in the warehouse Natasha used one of the men as a launch pad to flip on top of another, the resulting impact shattered the chair leaving only the pieces attached to her arms. As she was grabbed from behind she used one of those to push his arm away before striking him several times which culminated in her kicking him in the chest. Using her momentum as she hit the floor to spring back to her feet she charged at the man who hadn't been expecting it. She got her legs around his neck and flipped him to the ground._

_Finally, she grabbed a chain and wrapped it around the leg of the still conscious leader and flung him down the gap that they had been threatening her with earlier._

"That was effective," Toni joked with a shrug as the others seemed incapable of voicing their thoughts on the matter.

_She retrieved the phone from its place on the ground as well as her high heels. "Where is Barton now?" she asked._

"_We don't know," Coulson replied._

"_But he's alive," Natasha continued._

"_We think so," Coulson said as he watched footage of Clint and Natasha working side by side on his computer screen, "I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first we need you to talk to the big one."_

"_Coulson, as much as I like Stark you know she trusts me about as far as she can throw me," Natasha stated._

"Wait what?" Steve asked bewildered.

"Just because we met before and liked each other doesn't indicate that we trusted each other. Back then I certainly couldn't trust Tasha because of what she pulled on me and she knew that. I had my reasons," Toni stated.

"_Oh, I've got Stark. You get the big guy," Coulson clarified._

_Natasha's steps faltered as she looked back at the carnage she had caused exclaiming in Russian._

"I had wondered why I got Phil at my door instead of you Tasha, guess I know now," Toni said simply.

**A/n: So there you go, the first ever change to the film is in this chapter even if it is just a small one. **


	4. Meet The Hulk

Chapter 4 – Meet The Hulk

**A/n – I think I have an addiction to writing this story. I'm really enjoying myself. Two updates in one day is definitely a first**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Hello again :) Of course and that is my intention. Influences in Toni's life are of course different to Tony's which in the end do make her a similar but still different person. Yay! You have been converted to the Fem!Tony team, welcome aboard :D **

**Harm Marie – I'm glad you are liking it.**

**MelodyPotterSnape – There will be plenty of anger at Fury although a lot of it will be directed at the Council instead of him in some scenes. It hits a peak level with the stunt with Coulson though.**

_The screen switched to show a street in India as a little girl ran through the crowd carefully avoiding those running by on bicycles. The scene showed her face and something was visibly within her right hand as she ran although it was impossible to see what. She turned a couple of corners before reaching the house she was looking for and racing up the stone staircase within._

_The people within were speaking Hindi but subtitles for it instantly sprung up below the picture. One woman noticed the little girl and exclaimed, "Who are you? Get out! There is sickness here!" As she moved forward Bruce was visible in the background washing out a jug. _

"You really can't tell me that you prefer Calcutta to here now can you Bruce?" Toni said giving her friend a significant look.

"Okay fine, but I was good there," Bruce admitted.

"_You're a doctor," the little girl insisted, "my father's not waking up! He has a fever and he's moaning but his eyes won't open."_

_By this point Bruce had made his way over upon hearing the girl's story and calmly interjected, "slow down."_

_The little girl took a deep breath before continuing, "My father…" as she said this she looked over to the patients that Bruce had been treating in this house. _

_Bruce crouched down so he was at eye level with the girl and asked her, "like them?" indicating his young patients in the corner of the room._

_The girl simply nodded and pleaded, "Please," holding out the money she had in her hand to get Bruce to come._

"She was very good," Natasha said softly, "I should probably try and keep SHIELD away from her until she's older though. I don't want her learning too much at that age like I did."

_Bruce had obviously accepted the little girl's offer as they made their way towards a secluded cabin. The little girl was running ahead with Bruce holding her back a little to let a car pass in front of them. Some sort of family were sitting on hay bales watching TV which might have been suspicious but Bruce obviously had no proof that one of them was the little girl's father. She sprinted through the house looking like she was just eager to return to her father's side but upon entering the back room she leapt from the window._

"_You should've got paid up front Banner," Bruce said to himself._

"Life lesson, you should always get paid up front if at all possible," Toni said agreeing with the statement.

"And you would know that how?" Clint butted in.

"I ran a company from the age of 21. I gave it up last year to Piper and I am now 36. Hence I ran the company for nearly fifteen years, I'd say I know what I'm doing when it comes to business," Toni said dismissively.

_Natasha's voice came from behind Bruce, "you know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress you picked a hell of place to settle," she emerged from behind a curtain now dressed in more traditional Indian clothes._

_Bruce dropped his bag informing her, "Avoiding stress isn't the secret."_

"_Then what is it? Yoga?" Natasha inquired._

"Friend Banner, how many times did someone ask you that over the course of these events?" Thor queried.

"A lot, everyone wanted to know," Bruce said with a smile.

_Bruce ignored the comment and began commenting on his surroundings, "you brought me to the edge of the city. Smart. I assume the whole place is surrounded." He looked out of the window as he said this obviously expecting to spot one of the people out there._

"_Just you and me," Natasha said discarding her shawl._

Most of the Avengers scoffed at that as they knew there was no way SHIELD would have sent in Natasha if they hadn't put more people outside just in case. Bruce was the one that SHIELD had been most reluctant to bring in after all with Toni a close second due to 'Natasha's report,' on her.

"_And your actress buddy?" Bruce asked, "Is she a spy, too? They start that young?"_

"_I did," Natasha stated._

"I went into the family business a lot sooner than they did," Toni said matter-of-factly, "I was four."

"Shouldn't you have been doing kid's stuff at four?" Steve asked.

"Not with my father and an IQ of 189. No chance!" Toni snorted and then refused to say anything else on the subject.

"_Who are you?" Bruce inquired._

"_Natasha Romanoff," Natasha clarified. _

_Bruce looked down for a moment before asking seriously, "Are you here to kill me, Ms Romanoff? Because that's not going to work out for everyone."_

"_No, of course not. I'm here on behalf of SHIELD," Natasha said slowly walking towards Bruce. _

"_SHIELD," Bruce contemplated, "How did they find me?"_

"Either they never lost you or they utilised their unfortunately endless resources I bet," Toni guessed.

"_We never lost you, Doctor," Natasha confirmed, "We've kept our distance. Even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent."_

"I have no doubt that Ross was one of them," Bruce said and Natasha gave him a brief nod to confirm that he had been.

"_Why?" Bruce asked._

"_Nick Fury seems to trust you," Natasha stated._

"Now that is a lie," Bruce laughed derisively, "if he did then he would never have set up the death trap for me. The only person I know who trusted me from the moment we met was Toni and I still don't know why."

"I'll probably have to explain that later anyway so don't worry about it now," Toni said quietly.

"_But now we need you to come in," Natasha continued._

"_What if I say no?" Bruce asked._

"_I'll persuade you," Natasha said not attempting to hide that they would bring Bruce in at any cost._

"_And what if the other guy says no?" Bruce asked hesitantly._

"_You've been more than a year without an incident. I don't think you want to break that streak," Natasha said taking a step back._

"Then you should never have brought me in the first place," Bruce said quietly as he had transformed twice relatively soon after this incident although one of them had basically been on purpose.

"_Well I don't every time get what I want," Bruce stated quietly as if not wanting to bring that up with Natasha._

"_Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe," Natasha said bringing out her phone and searching through it ignoring his previous comment._

_Bruce let out a light chuckle before pointing out, "well, those I actively try to avoid."_

"How many of them are there that you feel the need to avoid them?" Steve asked concerned.

"Not that many, most incidents are citywide and a lot of them do focus on New York although most of mine happened in California to be honest," Toni said with a shrug.

"_This," Natasha said turning the phone to show an image of the Tesseract on its screen, "is the Tesseract." After taking a seat she slid the phone across the table to allow Bruce to get a better look, "it has the potential energy to wipe out the planet." _

"Which should have warned us away I know," Natasha said before anyone else took the opportunity to do so.

_Bruce put on his glasses and picked up the phone despite the fact that he had said he wasn't interested. "What does Fury want me to do, swallow it?" Bruce joked._

"_He wants you to find it. It's been taken," Natasha told him, "it emits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was that's where I'd be."_

"Except Toni apparently so I still don't know why you had to bring me in," Bruce wondered.

"I meant it when I said I learn things overnight," Toni answered, "I only read up on the gamma radiation and the thermonuclear astrophysics info specific to this case the day I was recruited. My brain can pick that up quickly but not every tiny little detail that comes with years of extensive study which is your advantage there. Although it is the reason that you never see me sleep, my brain works too hard so I either have to drink myself unconscious or work until I collapse."

With no idea of how to respond to that statement the rest of the Avengers turned their attention back to the screen.

_Bruce removed his glasses before asking seriously, "so Fury isn't after the monster?"_

"Still not a monster Bruce," Toni muttered to her friend who didn't acknowledge that he'd heard her although she knew he had.

"_Not that he's told me," Natasha replied calmly._

"_And he tells you everything?" Bruce said suspiciously._

"_Talk to Fury. He needs you on this," Natasha said knowing that she couldn't give him an honest 'yes' answer to that question._

"_He wants me in a cage?" Bruce scoffed._

"I was close, he had the cage, he just didn't want me in it all the time," Bruce said matter-of-factly.

"_No one's going to put you in a…" Natasha said reaching over to attempt to reassure Bruce. _

"_Stop LYING to me!" Bruce shouted slamming his hands down on the counter. Natasha's hand instantly went for the gun that she had stored under the table and drew it so it was pointing at Bruce with the safety off._

"In my defence the cage on the helicarrier wasn't my idea and I didn't approve of it," Natasha said quietly.

_Bruce took a step back from the table at the sight of the gun and smirked a little as he said, "I'm sorry. That was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do."_

"Now that was a move I recognised. Annie is fond of testing people like that," Natasha said throwing a glance in Toni's direction.

"Well it works doesn't it," Toni said without a hint of remorse in her tone.

_Bruce put his hands up as if to reassure Natasha that he wasn't about to change, "Why don't we do this the easy way where you don't use that and the other guy doesn't make a mess. Okay?"_

_When Natasha's gun didn't lower he added, "Natasha?"_

_At that Natasha finally lowered the gun and reached up to the comm unit in her right ear and said, "Stand down," as the soldiers outside the building moved away, "we're good here."_

"'_Just you and me'" Bruce referenced with a significant look._

"Knew it," the people who hadn't been there whispered.

_The scene changed to show Fury in a conversation with the Council who supposedly were in charge of SHIELD. "This is out of line, Director," the second one on the right stated, "you're dealing with forces you can't control."_

"_You ever been in a war Councilman?" Fury asked accusingly, "In a firefight? Did you feel an overabundance of control?"_

"Don't like him, have to agree with him there," Toni muttered.

"_You're saying this Asgard is declaring war on our planet?" the Councilman continued._

"Asgard did not declare war, it was Loki, my people want nothing but peace," Thor cried out obviously offended by the Councilman's words.

"_Not Asgard. Loki," Fury corrected._

"_He can't be working alone," the female member of the Council said, "what about the other one? His brother."_

"I WOULD NEVER FIGHT TO CONTROL THE PEOPLE OF MIDGARD. HOW DARE SHE SUGGEST IT?" Thor shouted.

"Thor you need to calm down," Steve placated, "this has already happened and we know that you didn't help Loki."

Thankfully this seemed to have the desired affect for while Thor was obviously still internally fuming he did settle down and didn't shout at the screen anymore much to the relief of everyone's eardrums.

"_Our intelligence says Thor is not a hostile," Fury insisted, "but he's worlds away. We can't depend on him to help either. It's up to us."_

"_Which is why you should be focusing on Phase 2," the Councilman said, "It was designed for exactly this…"_

_Fury interrupted, "Phase 2 isn't ready. Our enemy is. We need a response team."_

"Phase 2 should never have been an option," Steve growled.

"Hey, it's been shut down," Clint said, "Thor took away the Tesseract and it's impossible to make the weapons now."

"_The Avengers Initiative was shut down," the Councilman insisted._

"_This isn't about the Avengers," Fury sighed._

"_We've seen the list," the Council continued, "you're running the world's greatest covert security network and you're going to leave the fate of the human race to a handful of freaks."_

This made Bruce, Steve and Toni frown even more than they had been already for in a way all of them had been given the advantage of being a superhero at a price.

"_I'm not leaving anything to anyone. We need a response team," Fury reiterated coldly, "These people may be isolated, unbalanced even but I believe with the right push they can be exactly what we need."_

"It was one hell of a push," Steve muttered sadly and Toni nodded in agreement.

"_You believe?" the female Council member questioned sceptically._

"_War isn't won by sentiment, Director," the Councilman insisted._

"_No, it's won by soldiers," Fury said bitingly._

"I'm still not a soldier and I refuse to be called one," Toni spat at the screen. Steve gave her a significant look remembering her comment just after Coulson's death on the same subject. Why was war such a touchy subject for her?

**A/n: Finished typing this the same day as Chapter 3 went up, that's a first :) Couple of headcanon's for the original Tony that I've applied to Toni came through in the commentary this chapter as I suspected they might.**


	5. Meet Captain America

Chapter 5 – Meet Captain America

**A/n: Err, wow! The reviews on this story are insane but keep them coming for sure :D**

**HockeyGal09: The fast updates will keep coming as long as my interest lasts and my addiction to this story isn't going away yet **

**3 Avengers: Yay! Someone else joined the Fem!Tony team. I'm glad you like it so far and Toni is up after this chapter **

**youwannabekate: I was wondering where you had gone. I always worry when I lose reviewers as it's like did they stop liking my story. Love you too :) I love all my reviewers equally. Hawkeye is awesome and girl crushes on Toni are fine :) Both quotes will be in the next chapter although who says one of them will be changed **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Yes, I had to change Coulson's dialogue and I foreshadowed the better relationship between Tasha and Toni too. Toni's scene is up after this one.**

**Guest: I'm glad you're enjoying it. Yes there will probably be Clintasha but not officially just subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) admiration and flirting **

**Guest: I'm glad it's still good.**

**Guest: Well here's Steve; Toni's coming up next :D **

_The scene changed once more to show a boxing ring as someone punched a punching bag repeatedly in the background. As the shot drew closer to the person it became obvious that it was Steve as the punches became more and more frantic. A flash of a scene of Steve in full Captain America regalia running along with soldiers._

"Flashbacks; now those I'm familiar with," Toni said apparently having calmed down from her earlier fit about being called a soldier.

Natasha and Clint both nodded in agreement with her statement. Over the years they had both done things that resulted in unpleasant memories for them both. Mostly the flashbacks came in the form of nightmares but they had been known to have one whilst awake after a traumatic event. Being pulled out of ice after being frozen for seventy years would certainly qualify as such.

_Another scene flashed up of Steve using his shield to deflect a blast from and enemy's weapon before flashing back to Steve taking his anger out on the punching bag._

"_There's not enough time," Steve's voice said as a voiceover, "I got to put her in the water." The scene showed Steve's plane from that day as he turned it down to face the ocean. Steve's punches to the bag were getting more and more ferocious as he continued to remember the events of the 40's including a memory of the Tesseract._

"That thing has been around for ages and yet the moment they start testing it an incident occurs. If they'd just left well enough alone," Bruce sighed.

"_You won't be alone," Peggy's voice said as the screen showed Steve looking at a picture of her within a pocket watch._

"She looks so much younger there; it's strange," Toni said quietly.

"You knew Peggy," Steve queried suddenly.

"As much as I hate to admit to it Howard Stark was my father so yes I was familiar with Peggy Carter. She was there all through my childhood up until the point that she retired," Toni admitted, "she was the only real female role model I had as my mother doesn't really count."

"_Oh my god!" a Doctor exclaimed as Steve was shown obviously having recently been retrieved from the ice, "this guy's still alive."_

_Steve's punches had reached his peak, superhuman level and the punching bag that he had been using as a vent for his anger flew from its chain and skidded across the room spilling sand everywhere._

"And that's why all the punching bags here are reinforced," Toni said with a smile, "that was an interesting few hours, figuring out which method would work best."

"I guess that's why since I've been here I've only managed to do that to one of them," Steve realised.

_When Steve turned he picked up one of the many other punching bags that he had waiting on the floor. As he began to punch that one Fury was shown standing in the entrance, "trouble sleeping?" he shouted out to Steve._

"Guess that's why this was the only incident I was involved in that Fury didn't make a personal visit," Toni said with a smile, "he was too busy recruiting you. I much preferred getting visits from Phil anyway."

_Steve paused momentarily before deciding to continue boxing whilst he spoke, "I slept for 70 year, sir. I think I've had my fill."_

"_Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world," Fury said matter-of-factly._

_Steve was clearly sceptical about this point of view as he stopped boxing and walked away from Fury unwrapping his hand wraps. "When I went under the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost," Steve said in a melancholy tone._

"True," Bruce spoke up, "we lost a lot of ourselves to wars and to terrorists. That's how the whole mess with SHIELD got itself started."

"_We've made some mistakes along the way," Fury agreed, "some, very recently."_

"Some," Toni scoffed but made no further comment.

"_Are you here with a mission, sir?" Steve asked clearly wanting Fury to get to the point of the matter._

"_I am," Fury clarified._

"_Trying to get me back in the world?" Steve continued. _

"_Trying to save it," Fury said handing over the file he had been carrying which Steve took upon noticing it contained a picture of the Tesseract._

"That was not a good moment, I thought we were rid of that thing," Steve spat out.

"_HYDRA's secret weapon," Steve sighed._

"_Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you," Fury informed Steve, "He thought what we think. The Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."_

"I'm sure my father did think what you think Fury but it certainly wasn't anything beneficial to the world," Toni sneered, "unlimited sustainable energy wasn't something my dad was interested in at all. That's my field and my field only in the Stark family."

Steve gave Toni another worried glance. Who had Howard become after he had flown into the ocean? And what had he done to Toni that made her resent him so much? The man he remembered had been a good man and Steve had been saddened deeply to hear that he was dead. Something Howard had done meant that Toni couldn't see him that way.

_Steve held out the file to Fury indicating that he should take it back the stern look not leaving his face, "who took it from you?" he inquired._

"_He's called Loki," Fury told him, "he's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."_

"_At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me," Steve said standing._

"_Ten bucks says you're wrong," Fury bet._

"So that's what that was about," Bruce realised suddenly.

_Steve hoisted one of the spare punching bags up onto his shoulder as Fury continued to talk to him, "there's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment," Steve kept walking away not really acknowledging Fury's words. "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?" Fury questioned._

"_You should have left it in the ocean," were Steve's final words as he exited the scene._

"And I stand by that belief," Steve reiterated with a glare at the screen.

**A/n: This one is short because the scene in the movie is too. I didn't want to combine Toni's chapter with this one because everyone else got their own intro.**


	6. Meet Iron Man

Chapter 6 – Meet Iron Man 

**A/n – Here is the chapter that I was looking forward to writing the most and I'm certain most of you were looking forward to reading the most. A little fact before we start most of the dialogue changes are due to Piper's character being overprotective of Toni's character in a way that Pepper isn't for Tony **_**or **_**because Toni sees things differently than Tony did because she's a girl.**

**youwannabekate: Yay for on time reviews :D Thank you, I just thought that everyone there would really be able to relate to it so I threw it in. Don't worry that's one thing that annoyed me about the movies. Iron Man 2 and to a lesser extent Iron Man will explain that more. Enjoy!**

**EnglandBabe1997: Here's your update! Glad I'm combining two of your favourite concepts**

**MelodyPotterSnape: Bruce and Toni interactions are my favourites because I'm a hard-core Science bros/boyfriends shipper so expect lots more. I'm hoping I can make that moment touching but no promises; it'll come up during the lab scene on the helicarrier**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Equality is the best :) Yes, I did! I'm hoping to at least keep it to more than one update a week if I have to slow down a little eventually. Accurate will power sensors there :D **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Wow, seriously wow. One of the biggest compliments I've ever received. Hoping you like this as you're the only one so far who has reviewed every chapter. You get the prize for most faithful reviewer :D **

**Harm Marie: Good, I'm glad**

_Suddenly the scene changed to show a pipe running underwater which was being sliced open at one section by the laser within the glove of the Iron Man suit._

"I thought you didn't go… you know," Natasha asked Toni trying not to make it too obvious what she was talking about.

"That's when I'm not in the Iron Man suit. When I'm in it I'm alright but it's still not something I love to do and I avoid it whenever possible," Toni answered.

_As the casing fell away leaving the wires exposed Toni reached for the arc reactor she was carrying with her and attached it to the pipe watching as the power came on. Upon seeing this she turned away and blasted herself out of the water near a ship that was travelling past before turning to fly back towards the Stark tower._

"_We're good to go on this end. The rest is up to you," Toni said over her comm unit. _

"_You disconnected the transmission lines? Are we off the grid?" Piper asked as his image was shown on the screen within the suit. _

"So that's what it looks like to you in there, I didn't know it was that sophisticated," Steve exclaimed.

"Of course it's sophisticated. I'll admit the Mark I was a pile of junk but I'm inclined to think that all the ones I've made since are getting more and more sophisticated. Besides if they weren't there would be no way that I'd be able to download JARVIS into them as he's a high functioning artificial intelligence; he won't merge with anything long term except if it's equally high functioning. Of course he's very useful for accessing other databases but he would cause them to short circuit if he was constantly connected to them and since I wanted JARVIS to connect to the suit I designed it with sophistication in mind," Toni ranted in an offended tone. She was very protective of both JARVIS and her suit as she didn't want them to be belittled or used for nefarious purposes.

Nobody appeared to know what to say to Toni after her outburst so they simply turned back to the movie which JARVIS had paused momentarily as Toni got that off of her chest.

"_Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy," Toni said with a smile._

"_Well, assuming the arc reactor takes over and it actually works," Piper said matter-of-factly._

"_I assume, the other two work so why wouldn't this one. Light her up!" Toni said with a grin._

"The other two?" Clint queried.

"Yeah, one powers the factory that mass produces some of my technological advances that I've made available to the public. The other is this," Toni said pulling off the leather jacket she was wearing to reveal a circular blue light shining through her white camisole. As she replaced her jacket Steve said, "Wait you wear the power source for the suit all the time."

"I have to," Toni said, "but I'm sure Amora's set the reason for that up later in another film so I won't tell you now."

_When Piper hit the switch in the Tower instantly lights began to flicker up the way before eventually the lights showing the word Stark flickered to life and the entire tower had access to self-sustaining energy. _

"_How does it look?" Piper said breathily._

"_Like Christmas but with more me," Toni said with a smirk, "did my name really need to be on the top Piper?"_

"Wait that wasn't your idea," Steve said puzzled.

"No, I didn't feel the need for it as a) everyone knows it's Stark Tower anyway and b) I'm not proud of everything in the world that has my name on it so I try and keep it off things nowadays," Toni explained, "Piper insisted."

_Piper ignored Toni's comment and began talking business, "we've got to go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some press. I'm in DC tomorrow; I'm working on the zoning for the next three buildings."_

"_Piper, you're killing me. The moment, remember? I know work is important to you but enjoy the moment," Toni said with a laugh as she landed._

"_Get in here and I will," Piper teased. _

"Wait, you two were together back then! I thought you got together after the Battle for New York," Bruce said puzzled.

"According to the press we did but we were already together a little while before that. We just didn't announce it publically because Piper is my CEO and people might have thought he slept his way to the top of the company which he didn't. I didn't want to ruin Piper's reputation as much as I would have liked to admit to being with him," Toni explained.

"_Ma'am, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line," JARVIS stated._

"_Well if it's Phil then I suppose you can put him through," Toni joked as her mask was removed but Piper interrupted, "don't do that JARVIS, she's still technically out."_

"_What Piper?" Toni asked puzzled. _

"_Ma'am, I'm afraid he's insisting," JARVIS continued._

"_And I said don't answer JARVIS, we have a date and every time that Agent calls up Toni ends up in danger. Don't answer," Piper insisted._

"Overprotective," Natasha said matter-of-factly.

"You'd think I couldn't take care of myself wouldn't you," Toni said rolling her eyes.

_Toni rolled her eyes but stopped trying to argue with Piper as the Iron Man boots were removed leaving her in a white tank top with denim shorts as she untied the bobble that kept her hair up and out of the way whilst in the suit. As she entered the room Piper was observing one of the holographic screens there saying, "Levels are holding steady, I think." _

"_Of course they are," Toni said as she walked over, "I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question. How does it feel to be a genius?" With that she discarded the comm unit she had in her ear and smiled at Piper. _

"It's amazing how comfortable you are around him," Clint said unknowingly digging himself into a hole.

"And why would that be?" Toni said sharply.

"I just… meant that… sometimes… you… err…" Clint was for once lost for words under the full force of Toni's glare.

"You're in a hole Clint, stop digging," Natasha advised with a smirk.

"_Well, I really wouldn't know, now would I?" Piper said turning to face Toni as she powered down the screen._

"_What do you mean?" she inquired, "all this came from you."_

"_No, all this came from that," Piper objected pointing to the arc reactor that shone through Toni's t-shirt._

"_Give yourself some credit. Please. Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself 12% of the credit," Toni joked with a gleam in her eye._

"That wasn't a wise move," Steve observed.

"Unless she was riling him up on purpose which I believe she was," Bruce pointed out looking over at Toni who with a nod confirmed his theory.

"_12%?" Piper said darkly._

"_I suppose an argument could be made for 15," Toni said acting as if it pained her to say it._

"_12%? My baby?" Piper said jokingly obviously catching on to the teasing tone._

"_Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things," Toni continued, "And, sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you."_

"_Oh," Piper said as she grabbed a champagne glass and beginning to pour._

"_Our private elevator was teeming with sweaty workmen and you were the one who was messing with the coding that day to see if you could," Toni explained._

"You let him mess with JARVIS," this time Bruce was the one who was shocked.

"Well, it's not like he would be able to do anything that I wouldn't be able to fix within a minute and I trust him even if he is obnoxiously overprotective of me," Toni said with a shrug although she could see why it was shocking. She didn't let anyone but Bruce and Piper into her lab and of those two Piper was the only one she had ever allowed to touch anything to do with JARVIS. And that had only happened a couple of times because Piper knew more about JARVIS than the others seeing as he had been working with Toni for far longer.

"_Now you can make me pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later," Toni laughed as she took a seat and picked up her glass of champagne. _

"_It's not going to be that subtle," Piper shrugged picking up his own._

"_I tell you what. Seeing as you're so insistent on the name in lights thing the next building is going to say 'Potts' on the tower," Toni decided._

"_On the lease," Piper said reaching his glass forward for a toast. _

_Toni immediately retracted her glass and muttered teasingly, "I'll think about it."_

"You know you're rich when you can afford to give buildings away I guess," Natasha said with a smile.

"Don't know; think I knew I was rich before that," Toni replied before laughing at the expressions on everyone but Natasha's faces. Tasha and Toni were used to making subtle jibes like that at each other in good spirits.

"_Ma'am, the telephone," JARVIS interrupted, "I'm sorry Mr. Potts but Miss. Stark's orders override yours."_

"The only reason that Phil actually managed to get through to me that day was because of that," Toni laughed, "Piper's still trying to talk me into making him respond to us both equally."

"_Toni, we need to talk," Coulson said from the other end of the line. Toni reached out for the phone which was actually just a small holographic pad but Piper snatched it from her hands. "This is Toni Stark's former secretary. Please leave a message," he quipped._

"Wait I thought Piper was CEO of Stark Industries," Steve said obviously lost again.

"He became CEO after I appointed him my successor. Before that Piper was my PA. That's why he said former," Toni laughed.

"_Mr. Potts, this is urgent," Coulson said trying to get her to hand over the phone._

"_Then leave it urgently," Piper insisted._

_The lift doors opened revealing Coulson standing there with his phone to his ear. Toni smiled at him telling Piper, "It's on you. You were the one who messed with the security," before turning back to Coulson, "Phil! Come in." She stood up taking her glass of champagne with her. _

"'_Phil?'" Piper queried._

"_I can't stay," Coulson said as he walked into the room._

"_His first name is 'Agent,' Toni, 'Agent'," Piper emphasised following Toni as she went up to meet Phil._

This caused a general ripple of quiet laughter to break out through the room. They had a distinct feeling that quite a few scenes featuring Toni would end up being the much needed comic relief of the movie.

"_Come on in," Toni emphasised ignoring her boyfriend, "We're celebrating."_

"_Which is why he can't stay," Piper muttered under his breath._

"_We need you to look this over as soon as possible," Coulson said attempting to hand over a file to Toni._

"_Sorry Phil, still don't like to be handed things but fortunately Piper loves to be handed things so we can set up a trade," Toni said regretfully._

"So the whole not liking to be handed things quirk isn't just something you use to annoy me," Steve inquired.

"No," Toni said quietly, "it's leftover from Afghanistan. I only let Piper hand me things."

"When were you in Afghanistan?" Clint asked. It wasn't in her file but then again most SHIELD agents who had seen it suspected that Toni regularly wiped things from her file that she didn't want to be general knowledge.

_Piper reluctantly handed Coulson his champagne glass and took the electronic file from Coulson before swapping it with Toni's champagne glass._

"_Thank you," Toni said softly before returning to talking to Coulson, "official consulting hours are between 8 and 5 every other Thursday for SHIELD operatives but I guess I can make an exception because it's you Phil."_

"I never even realised how close you two were," Steve said regretfully, "if I had known I wouldn't have…"

"Yes, you would, Cap. Don't worry about it," Toni interrupted.

"_This isn't a consultation I'm afraid Toni," Coulson confirmed. _

"_Is this about that stupid Avengers idea?" Piper asked bitterly before tacking a, "which I know nothing about," on the end when he noticed Coulson's disapproving look._

_Toni put together the handheld screen as she said, "The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify."_

"Why wouldn't you have qualified?" Bruce inquired, "You're one of our most important team members."

"SHIELD had a report on me that didn't recommend me for it. You'll hear about it in a moment," Toni said redirecting their attention to the film.

"_I didn't know that either," Piper said although it was slightly hesitant and there was a flash of something almost like guilt in his eyes._

"_Apparently, I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others," Toni joked, "it was all in Natasha's report."_

"I thought you two were friends," Steve queried, "why would Natasha write that?"

He received no answer except for another indication that he should watch what was going on in the film.

"_You and I both know Toni that Piper used one of your programmes to hack into SHIELD and change the information in Natasha's report before it reached Fury to make sure we wouldn't get Toni involved," Phil replied honestly._

"_Wait you two knew about that," Piper said obviously shocked that he had been caught out._

"_Of course I knew," Toni scoffed, "I've had a direct relay on all of SHIELD's information about me delivered to JARVIS as soon as it appeared since we first met Phil. I received both copies of the report and it was easy to track the interference to here and hence to you."_

"Wait…" Natasha said surprised, "that means…"

"That I knew what Natalie Rushman was really doing in my company before she even arrived, yes, it does," Toni finished with a smile.

"Sometimes I wonder if you've gone through spy training," Natasha said exasperated but amused at the same time.

"_Still doesn't mean you can get her involved now," Piper said bitingly._

"_Mr. Potts, got a second?" Toni said drawing Piper away from a confrontation with Coulson._

"_Half a mo," Piper said before heading over to where Toni was inspecting the computer screen and using a passcode to get into the data._

"_What is up with you Piper?" Toni asked accusingly._

"_I thought I was having 12% of a moment," Piper said, "until you let JARVIS let him on the telephone line."_

"And there's the inevitable comment about percentages I guess,"Clint said with a shrug.

"_Look Piper, this seems serious. Phil's pretty shaken," Toni said trying to calm him down._

"_How would you know if it's…? Why is he 'Phil'?" Piper asked seeming not to know which question he found most important at the moment, "what is all this?" he settled on._

"_This is," Toni said before grabbing hold of the icons on the screen and throwing them up onto Stark issue screens around the room, "this."_

Thor, Steve & Bruce could see footage of themselves as well as info on the three nearest screens and they were impressed by how slick the technology seemed to be in a room that wasn't even one of Toni's labs. They didn't really use the tech in the Tower much (other than Bruce and he had assumed the labs were different than the rest of the house) so they didn't know just how much of it there was.

"_I need to see if there's anything that I can do to help. You should take the jet to DC tonight," Toni decided._

"_I don't have to leave until tomorrow," Piper insisted, "and are you really sure you want to get involved again?"_

"_Look they might really need my help and I have homework, I have a lot of homework. I'm not rushing in. I'll make my decision after studying the facts," Toni said refusing to back down._

"_Well, what if you didn't?" Piper said trying to get her to set it aside._

"_If I didn't, you mean when I've finished, well, then…" Toni said with a smile before leaning in and whispering something in Piper's ear._

"I am really glad I don't know what you said there," Natasha said, "we're friends but just no."

"_Square deal," Piper finally relented._

"_Fly safe," Toni replied before leaning in and kissing him. _

"_Work hard," Piper said as he pulled away and made his way towards the door directing his next comment to Coulson, "so, any chance you're driving by LaGuardia?"_

"_I can drop you," Coulson said obviously keen to leave. _

_As they left Toni reached out to remove the hologram of the Tesseract from one of the screens._

"Wait! You can interact with your computer screens," Steve said astounded.

"Well yeah, they're basically holograms but slightly more sophisticated," Toni said with a shrug.

_Just as the pair were nearly out of the door Toni shouted out to Coulson, "hey, what about that cellist? Is that still a thing?"_

"_She moved back to Portland," Coulson replied._

"_What? That sucks, sorry to hear it," Toni said before motioning to him that she was finished talking and he could leave with no further interruptions before turning back to her computer screen. "JARVIS; I have a job for you," she said._

"I really didn't know you were that close to Coulson," Natasha said, "I mean I knew you two knew each other but not that well."

"He ended up hanging about so much that we ended up talking a lot," Toni said sadly, "he was good company at times."

Nobody knew how to respond to that.

**A/n: And that's the end of the long awaited Toni chapter. Hope it lived up to expectations. Now don't expect another one until tomorrow at the earliest :D **


	7. I'm In

Chapter 7 – I'm In 

**A/n: I was so worried about posting the last chapter because I wasn't sure if you guys would like what I had done with Toni. Seeing as y'all liked her I added a bonus Phil/Toni phone call in this chapter. You're welcome!**

**SPECIAL DEDICATION: LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books and XxxBellaBellaxxX, you two are the primary reason I'm updating so fast. Love to you both :)**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I was so relieved when I saw that you had reviewed. Yay, so glad you're loving my fem!Tony and thank god I met your expectations of the chapter.**

**Booklover2526: I'm trying to stick to the movie as much as possible but I've added a bonus Toni scene in this chapter so I hope you like it. Tony has always been my favourite Avenger so I'm adding as much in this story as possible.**

**FudoTwin17: I'm glad :) Here's the update and yes parts of it were a little sad but that's the nature of the movie and conversation which would occur from it. Hopefully this one is more cheerful.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I was waiting anxiously for a review from you and I'm so glad it came :) I'm glad you liked Piper and I couldn't resist the Toni/Phil interactions**

**whitetigerwolf: I'm being pretty fast with updates on this story so here you go :) **

_The scene changed to show a plane flying over the ocean. "We're about 40 minutes out from home base, sir," the pilot relayed as he and his co-pilot adjusted some switches on the dash. _

_Coulson the removed the headphones he had been wearing and made his way over to where Steve was sitting examining a computer screen._

"Now we get to see how much of a fan Phil became when he was talking about you," Toni laughed, "sometimes I think his interest in you was at an insane level but he's Phil so… it almost seemed in character for him."

"_So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum they used on me?" Steve queried._

"I didn't make the best first impression on you I guess if you were reading from those files," Bruce said quietly. He knew that many people saw his actions whilst in Hulk mode back then as repugnant as he still did but it wasn't who he was most of the time and the only person who had seen that at first sight had been Toni.

"_A lot of people were," Coulson confirmed, "You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."_

"_Didn't really go his way did it," Steve muttered darkly._

"_Not so much," Coulson agreed._

"Not at all more like," Bruce said darkly.

"It was a good theory though," Toni said, "gamma radiation might have unlocked several of the components of the original formula. Although I doubt it would have replicated it precisely."

"You could figure out how to recreate it; couldn't you," Steve cut in quietly.

"Maybe," Toni said hesitantly, "I've never tried and I tend to think it's best if something of that value and power never exists again. There are too many opportunities for sabotage and theft which would result in a culture of people gaining super powers with no regards to whether they will use them for good."

"_When he's not that thing, though, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking," Coulson continued._

"I'm going to take that one as a compliment I think," Bruce said knowing he wasn't likely to get many of them throughout the movie. Other than the ones about his intelligence from Toni.

_Steve gave Coulson a confused look as he didn't get the reference causing Coulson to quickly explain, "He's like a really smart person."_

_Steve seemed to accept this and took one last look at the screen before it turned off and Coulson got an expression on his face similar to a fan at the concert of their favourite pop star._

"Phil's going into fan boy mode," Toni laughed.

"_I gotta say, it's an honour to meet you, officially," Phil said nervously as Steve gave him a smile, "I've sort of met you," Phil continued, "I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping."_

"Bit awkward," Natasha said wincing, "hope someone saved him."

"_I mean, I was present when you were unconscious from the ice," Phil attempted to recover as Steve stood up and made his way to the front of the plane, "you know, it's really just a huge honour to have you on board this…"_

"_I hope I'm the man for the job," Steve replied._

"_Oh you are, absolutely," Phil said glad he'd regained control of the situation. Just then his pocket blared as his phone rang saving him from any further embarrassment. He took one look at the caller ID which read 'Stark,' before sighing and answering, "You are not supposed to have this phone number."_

"You hacked into a private phone network just so you could call Coulson!" Clint said shocked and a little impressed. Phone numbers of SHIELD operatives were kept completely secret and had to be memorised as any written record of them had to be burnt within a day of its creation according to company policy.

"It didn't take much to extrapolate the data from the phone call he made to me through JARVIS earlier in the day and get the phone number. Took me about a minute," Toni said with a shrug. It was clear that she didn't think it was a very big deal at all.

_Steve now looked infinitely more interested on who was on the other end of the phone. The scene changed to show Toni standing in the same room in Stark Industries where Coulson had left her with her comm unit back on her ear and screens with data on the future Avengers surrounding her. "You know me," she quipped, "I've never been one for following rules. Now I want more info." _

"Never been one for following rules is a bit of an understatement Annie," Natasha said good naturedly.

"I would follow them if they made any sense to me and made things more convenient," Toni said with a shrug, "most of them don't so I don't follow them. I'll follow orders that make sense but only if I respect the person who is giving them."

This made Steve feel slightly honoured for in battle she had accepted his leadership and followed his orders which means that even if he didn't have her full trust he at least had her respect.

"_I gave you all the relevant…" Coulson began before Toni swiftly interrupted; "now you and I both know Phil that isn't strictly true. Now I am not asking you to reveal anything that would cost you your job I just want to know more about what we're facing. I've read up about this team that Fury is attempting to assemble and may I say I reckon it's going to take something big for this team to gel at all."_

"You suspected," Natasha said incredulously.

"I suspected a major event would be needed to resolve any conflicts within the group, I didn't know what it would be. I certainly didn't predict the events on the helicarrier although they were always a possibility which you knew," Toni resolved quickly and effectively.

"_Anyway," Toni said getting back on track, "I just want to know if you have any idea of what the motivations of this Loki guy are."_

"_What?" Phil asked bewildered._

"_Nobody wakes up one morning and decides, 'hey, today I want to take over another world,' he has to have some sort of reason," Toni explained exasperatedly._

"_We don't know much about him but from what we do know he doesn't seem to get along with his brother so familial dispute," Coulson said not knowing he was hitting the nail on the head._

"_People have tried taking over the world for less, I can work with that," Toni said after considering it for a moment._

"Friend Stark, you are the only one who thought to ask. You are wise for your kind," Thor said which was in his own way a compliment.

"Thank you," Toni said recognising the remark as what it truly was.

"_Is that all?" Phil sighed._

"_No, despite the fact that Piper will probably kill me for saying this, I'm in! You know how to contact me," Toni said as she removed a small silver device from the table nearest her and inspected it, "I'll see you when I get to your base. Send all Intel to the e-mail address you have for me and JARVIS will redirect it to the suit."_

"_Thank you! We appreciate your help," Phil said before hanging up on her and turning to face the co-pilot, "please radio Director Fury and tell him that Recruit 5 is a go."_

"_Yes, sir," the co-pilot said as he reached for his radio._

"So were you interested or very interested in the side of that conversation you could hear Steve," Clint inquired.

"Very," Steve admitted, "I didn't know who he was talking to of course but I knew it was probably someone else for the project who wasn't in my files."

"_Sorry," Coulson said turning back to Steve, "anyway we made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."_

"More like he stood over the shoulder of the people making it and told them what they should be doing," Clint laughed.

"_The uniform?" Steve said clearly slightly baffled by the sudden return to the former conversation topic, "Aren't the stars and stripes a little… old-fashioned?"_

"_With everything that's happening and the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned," Coulson explained. _

"I suppose he was right," Toni admitted. Steve knew that was probably the highest amount of praise he had got from Toni and was probably going to remain that way for quite some time.

**A/n: This was more of a filler chapter as the events of this chapter minus the phone call are actually part of the same scene in the movie as the Toni scene which was better as a standalone. There's a little more to it as well but I felt that was better tagged on to the beginning of the next chapter instead.**


	8. Welcome to SHIELD

Chapter 8 – Welcome to SHIELD

**A/n – Again really thrilled by the great response I'm getting for this story and the dedication is again to LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books and XxxBellaBellaxxX whose names have actually been added to my word dictionary because I'm sick of having to get rid of the red lines all the time. **

**youwannabekate: She's still Iron Man because of events of Iron Man the movie. Sorry about the 12% thing but it was quite hard to work it in as I knew you wanted it. I know but I did say it was a filler. It's going to come as quite a shock especially to Steve although that's more because of the reasoning behind the suit. They'll get into it a little then but Toni won't go into detail until after it's shown on screen. At some point yes they will; but it won't be expected and they will panic about it :) **

**Guest: For that you'll have to wait and see mainly because I haven't truly decided myself yet. I'm leaning towards Fury not having lied about it because I think Toni would have hacked in and found out by now.**

**MelodyPotterSnape: Glad someone picked up on that as that was my intention. Her connections to Phil & Tasha were easy enough to sort out. Bruce's was there already and Steve's is beginning to develop and will hit a crucial point during the Iron Man viewing. Still not sure what to do with Clint to make him closer so suggestions are appreciated.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked it because Phil/Toni interactions are fun to write. **

**Booklover2526: You're welcome and most of the added scenes include Toni so I hope you like those too.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books – Toni is basically Tony with bits of me. Seriously :) I take Tony's character throw bits of me in adjust accordingly and voila you have Toni :D I've always loved Phil especially in that scene. Tasha and Toni are going to raise hell in Iron Man 2 especially. Toni will make him lighten up don't worry. Dedicated reviewer indeed.**

**ReaderoftheBooks: Glad you liked it!**

**Harm Marie: Good, glad to hear it!**

_The scene changed once more to show an underground corridor covered in damp stains with small pools of water gathering on the floor. Running through it were two armed soldiers who emerged in a lab that had been set up at the end of the corridor._

"Pretty good for an improvised underground lab I guess," Toni acknowledged, "could have contained some of the dangerous equipment better but I guess they're not good enough to manage that."

_At the back of the lab Selvig had set up a machine not unlike the one that SHIELD had to hold the Tesseract as they worked on it. Selvig was instructing several other members of his lab team as Loki watched on from his seat on the ground._

_Taking a deep breath he invoked the magic of his staff and blue light shone from it as the environment around him changed to the barren ship from the opening scene of the film. _

"I can see why they'd want somewhere else with a place like that," Clint admitted taking a look at how empty and horrible the place seemed.

"Maybe they like it that way," Steve said, "we still don't much about them other than their fighting tactics."

"That's because SHIELD don't have geneticists who are actually willing to work with all of us," Bruce said a little bitterly. Several of the geneticists there were more interested in working on him than on the Chitauri although Toni had stopped them from doing so with a few well aimed words and threats she could easily carry out.

"_The Chitauri grow restless," said one of the alien creatures._

"You know when he says it like that it makes me think that their army were the ones called the Chitauri and they actually call themselves something else," Toni said thoughtfully.

"One more thing to think about," Natasha sighed, "thanks Annie!"

"_Let them gird themselves," Loki replied, "I will lead them in the glorious battle."_

_As he said this another figure appeared seemingly from mid-air as Loki sat watching. The figure bore a striking resemblance to Loki in fact it was him._

"_Battle?" the alien scoffed, "against the meagre might of Earth?"_

"_Glorious, not lengthy," Loki confirmed, "if your force is as formidable as you claim."_

"Well it wasn't that long I'll give him that," Clint said, "didn't turn out the way he wanted though."

"_You question us?" came the offended reply, "you question him, he who put the sceptre in your hand? Who gave you ancient knowledge and new purpose when you were cast out, defeated?"_

"WE DID NOT CAST HIM OUT," Thor roared.

"From the stories you tell it sometimes seems like occasionally you did even if you didn't mean to," Toni muttered softly.

"_I was a king!" Loki snapped back clearly not pleased by this analysis, "The rightful king of Asgard, betrayed."_

It was clear that Thor wanted to comment on this too but one look from Toni showed him that it would be better to keep his thoughts to himself. He had truly angered Toni only once when he had accidentally 'injured' one of her AI's and he never wished to do it again.

"_Your ambition is little," the alien scoffed, "and born of childish need. We look beyond the Earth to the greater worlds the Tesseract will unveil."_

"_You don't have the Tesseract yet," Loki jibed._

"Not the best move in the world," Natasha said wincing at the unsubtle nature of the phrase.

_The alien upon hearing that raced over at lightning speed and held his hand threateningly near to Loki's neck. "I don't threaten," Loki said calmly, "but until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words."_

"_You will have your war, Asgardian," the alien muttered threateningly before stepping in closer to begin to circle Loki, "If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something sweet as pain."_

_At a jerk from the alien's hand Loki was snapped out of his meditative state and back to the underground lab where his true body lurched to the side with a grimace fixed upon his face. _

"Ouch," Clint muttered although he felt no sympathy for Loki's suffering after what he had done.

_The quinjet with Steve and Coulson aboard was shown approaching the helicarrier in its boat form. It landed gently on the runway and the two disembarked as Natasha approached, "store the Captain's gear," Coulson ordered which was responded to by a quick, "yes, sir."_

"_Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers," Coulson introduced._

"_Ma'am," Steve said formally._

"_Hi," was Natasha's cool response._

Toni smirked a little at this response as it was similar to hers whenever Steve had his moments of realising he was actually still talking to a woman whilst talking to her. It was leftover from his 40's gentleman like behaviour or something but really it unsettled her because nobody ever treated her like that.

"_They need you on the bridge," Natasha said turning her attention to Coulson, "They're starting the face-trace."_

_Coulson nodded and departed with a quick, "see you there."_

_Natasha sized Steve up with a look before striking up a conversation, "it was quite the buzz around here finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"_

Both Toni and Steve stiffened at the mention of the trading cards for similar and yet slightly different reasons. The other people in the room noticed of course but knew better than to ask especially since it would probably come up.

"_Trading cards?" Steve almost laughed._

"_They're vintage. He's very proud," Natasha continued. _

_Standing around slightly aimlessly on the deck near where the pair was heading was a thoroughly uncomfortable looking Dr. Bruce Banner. Upon seeing him Steve called out, "Dr. Banner."_

_When Bruce located Steve he instantly walked over seemingly relieved that he no longer had to stand around and dodge passing soldiers. It didn't appear to be having a positive impact on his nerves._

"_Yeah, hi," Bruce said shaking Steve's hand, "they told me you would be coming."_

"Didn't tell me Toni was coming," Bruce interjected.

"I don't think anyone but Tasha knew I was coming. Fury believes I'm narcissistic and everyone would immediately be put off his little project if they knew I was involved," Toni spat out, "he just does it to spite me but everyone does it so I'm used to it."

"_Word is, you can find the Cube," Steve said._

"_Is that the only word on me?" Bruce asked nervously._

"_Only word I care about," Steve clarified eliciting a nod from Bruce._

"_It must be strange for you, all of this," Bruce acknowledged but Steve simply took a look around and shrugged saying, "well, this is actually kind of familiar."_

"_Gentlemen," Natasha said interrupting their talk as they moved over towards the edge, "you might want to step inside in a minute. It's going to get a little hard to breathe."_

_There was the ominous click of machinery and the shouts to secure the deck coming over the PA system. The flaps on the side of the ship opened and began to drain away any water. "Is this a submarine?" Steve asked amazed._

"_Really?" Bruce said incredulously, "they want me in a submerged, pressurised, metal container?" _

"Arguably the results would have been worse had it been one," Bruce confirmed, "I wouldn't have been able to get away and would have kept causing carnage."

_As they stood at the very edge they could see one of the engines of the helicarrier emerging from the water spinning rapidly causing the water on top of it to fly in all directions. The momentum and lift generated by the engines lifted the helicarrier out of the water as the wind generated by the speed blew through the clothes of those on deck. "No, no, this is much worse," Bruce quipped._

This elicited a quiet chuckle from several of the Avengers although Toni's wasn't really all that quiet in comparison to the rest.

_The planes were fixed to the ground with sturdy ropes and everyone on deck was fitting themselves with an oxygen mask as water poured from the slats in the deck of the helicarrier. Inside the helicarrier Natasha led Steve and Bruce through the corridors and into the main control room where Fury was waiting. General chatter about helicarrier statistics buzzed through the room as Steve took a good look around. Bruce however stayed at the back of the room with an uneasy glance at the SHIELD logo._

_Through the buzz of noise Hill's voice came through, "All engines operating. SHIELD Emergency Protocol 193.6 in effect," she turned to address Fury, "we are at level, sir."_

"_Good," Fury stated, "Let's vanish."_

"_Engage retro-reflection panels," Hill said. Upon her order the panels on the underside of the ship turned to show the mirror side which reflected the sky back to an observer almost completely concealing the helicarrier. _

"Okay, that's sophisticated enough for me I guess," Toni said with a shrug which said she had accepted that they had managed this much but she didn't feel it was that much of a great feat.

"_Gentlemen," Fury said as he turned away from his computer screens. Steve reached into his pocket and handed Fury the ten bucks from in there fulfilling their bet._

The team other than Bruce now realised what Bruce had been talking about back when the bet between Fury and Steve had been made initially.

"I'm just glad that bet wasn't on-going or I'd be totally broke," Steve laughed.

"_Doctor, thank you for coming," Fury said as he reached out for a handshake._

"_Thanks for asking nicely," Bruce said trying and failing to keep a hint of sarcasm from entering his voice. He did however accept the offered hand and shook it briefly, "so how long am I staying?"_

"_Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind," Fury reassured him._

"That didn't exactly work out did it Toni?!" Bruce said accusingly although his tone wasn't harsh.

"Don't even try and pretend that you wanted to leave without seeing the labs and once you did you couldn't," Toni joked with a smile.

"_Where are you with that?" Bruce inquired._

_Fury gestured over to Coulson who stood by some screens and let him explain, "we're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops, if it's connected to a satellite it's eyes and ears for us."_

_Natasha spoke from her position beside the screen with Clint's details on that she had been examining, "that's still not gonna find them in time."_

"_You have to narrow your field," Bruce said slipping into science mode, "how many spectrometers do you have access to?"_

"Oh, I like where this is going," Toni said obviously realising what Bruce's intentions were.

"_How many are there?" Fury said as if it should have been the obvious answer._

"_Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places," Bruce continued._

"That's what I thought you were doing," Toni said nodding, "logical place to kick-start a search for something emitting a radioactive signature."

"_Do you have somewhere for me to work," he asked._

"_Agent Romanoff," Fury said turning to Natasha, "could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?"_

"_You're gonna love it Doc," Natasha said as she led him out, "we got all the toys."_

"Not quite all of them," Bruce said with a smile.

"Well we're not Stark Industries sponsored so we have all the toys you can get without that sponsorship," Natasha admitted.

**A/n: The scene doesn't end there but I'm going to tag it on to the beginning of the next chapter addressing the Germany scene. **


	9. Trouble In Germany

Chapter 9 – Trouble in Germany

**A/n – Here's the next chapter for y'all. Here's where we really get into the action and here comes some Steve/Toni interactions.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: That was part of the reason that she trusted him yes but she had other slightly more personal reasons for it. Might be something else that brings them together because I've decided what to do but thanks for the suggestion. Yeah, the Iron Man movies will be the most different for obvious reasons. **

**Paisley25: Technically I've already replied to your review but I just want to say thanks for the feedback and questions and chatting about headcanons with you is really influencing future parts of this story.**

**MelodyPotterSnape: Thank you, I'm glad you think they're well portrayed.**

**Brooksk1313: Thanks because focusing on the friendship is my intention. There will be hints of relationships but I'm trying to make this about team connections. Toni will figure it out by the Thor movie but I don't promise immediate redemption for Loki.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: When reading your review I was torn between laughing and being extremely flattered. It was flattering in an entertaining way. Loving that Toni is your female role model**

**Shadow The Assassin: Glad you like it.**

**The DarkLady55: There will be no Piper/Toni break up within this story because Piper isn't even there but there will probably be inevitable Steve/Toni and Bruce/Toni undertones. If I write a sequel of the aftermath (which I might, haven't decided yet) it may become more orientated to one of those couples.**

**youwannabekate: Yeah it is hard to write them as there is no natural stopping point but whenever they have a particularly long convo or there's not a big gap between dialogue JARVIS is pausing the movie even if I don't specifically state it. Me neither, it's going to be so fun to write. **

**Stiles Holmes: I'm glad you've come to like fem!Tony :) **

**Harm Marie: That's good, I'm glad**

_The scene switched back to the underground laboratory where Selvig was working. Several boxes were being carried in by scientists as Selvig directed, "put it over there."_

"_Where did you find all these people?" Selvig asked Clint._

"_SHIELD has no shortage of enemies, doctor," Clint clarified from the other side of the glass wall._

"They don't exactly attempt to stop themselves alienating people so yes they would have enemies," Toni scoffed.

"_Is this the stuff you need?" Clint inquired holding up a handheld computer screen which displayed the information they had on iridium._

"_Yeah, iridium," Selvig confirmed, "It's found in meteorites. It forms anti-protons. It's very hard to get hold of."_

"Well it would be," Bruce said.

"_Especially if SHIELD knows you need it," Clint said darkly._

"_Well, I didn't know," Selvig exclaimed before noticing that Loki was approaching and smiling, "hey! The Tesseract has shown me so much. It's more than knowledge. It's truth."_

"Which is precisely the problem with it," Clint said surprising them all. He was generally brooding silently whenever a scene showing the controlled version of him was displayed. "It takes away your sense of judgement," he continued, "and you believe whatever it wants you to."

"_I know," Loki said with a sinister smile, "what did it show you, Agent Barton?"_

"_My next target," Clint replied coldly._

"_Tell me what you need," Loki said._

_Clint walked over to a case sitting on the desk and pulled his bow from it instantly making it battle ready with a simple flick of the wrist. "I need a distraction," he stated, "and an eyeball."_

Natasha flinched at the mention of the eyeball. Some of the SHIELD agents who had been working clean up on the scene in Stuttgart had told her what they had found attached to one of the bodies.

_Back on the helicarrier the face-trace was still on-going as the Agents worked around it. Coulson was standing next to Steve and was obviously in the middle of a conversation with him, "I mean, if it's not too much trouble."_

"_No, no. It's fine," Steve said clearly slightly bemused._

"_It's a vintage set," Coulson continued after an awkward silence, "It took me a couple of years to collect them all."_

"Oh Phil," Toni sighed exasperatedly but it wasn't unkindly. She knew how much those cards had meant to him.

"_Near mint," he kept going as he hadn't been stopped, "slight foxing around the edges, but…"_

_He was interrupted by an insistent beeping from the computers and one of the agents running the face-trace turning to tell them, "We got a hit, 67% match," then he turned back to the screen and added, "wait. Cross match. 79%."_

"_Location," Coulson said quickly slipping back into business mode._

"_Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Königstrasse. He's not exactly hiding," the agent replied pulling the footage up on the screen. _

"And that should have been your first clue to spread out a bit more and look for other reasonable targets in the area," Toni sighed at the incompetence of SHIELD in general.

"_Captain," Fury said, "you're up."_

_Steve nodded in recognition and made his way out of the control room. _

_The scene changed to show the building in Stuttgart with cars approaching the doors as music played in the background. Inside men and women in posh outfits mingled to the sound of the violins. The music continued to play in the background as Steve walked through a metal door in the helicarrier and into a room that contained his new uniform in a glass case. Also shown was a scientific research facility which was being patrolled by guards. There was a distinct striking sound and the guard on top of the building looked down to see his colleague fall back with an arrow in his chest shortly before another hit him causing him to fall from the building. _

Clint flinched with every arrow that hit its target and Natasha knew that her friend was cursing his good aim. She didn't want to draw attention to his suffering so she simply placed her hand on his arm and tried to be reassuring.

_The quinjet carrying Steve flew towards the building containing Loki as Clint made his way to a sealed door within the scientific facility. Loki walked down the hall of the building swinging his staff like a cane as he peered over the balcony he could see the curator begin his speech. Once he reached the main area where the party was taking place he flipped his staff over and hit one of the security guards in the face with it. Stunned gasps came from the crowd as Loki grabbed hold of the curator and dragged him over to the ornate table in the centre of the room._

"I don't think it's just a distraction," Bruce muttered nervously.

_He pulled out a device which flickered on as Barton was shown fixing an identical one onto the iris recognition system._

The Avengers (especially Clint) all flinched as they had figured out exactly what was about to happen to the poor man on the table.

_Loki plunged the now spinning blades of the device onto the man's face specifically his eye. The crowd began to scream and run for the door as the curator screamed and shook in pain. The copy of his iris was transmitted to Clint's device and the thieves were let into the private room where they retrieved the needed iridium._

"I always wondered how they managed to get some," Toni said feeling more than a little sick. She had seen worse but it didn't make it any easier for her to see something like that.

_As the guests fled the hall Loki used magic to summon his armour which glowed gold. He walked at a sedate pace wearing a sinister smile as the guests ran as fast as they could. The sirens of a police car wailed but Loki wasn't bothered by their appearance as he simply used the sceptre to overturn the car. Then he created a double of himself with magic to cut off the fleeing people._

"Useful," Natasha admitted grudgingly.

"_Kneel before me," he said creating another double as they tried a different direction._

"_I said," the real Loki said approaching and banging the sceptre on the ground making all the other sceptres light up before shouting, "KNEEL!"  
_

_Scared stiff of what would happen to them if they didn't the party guests fell to their knees. "Is not this simpler?" Loki said with a smile walking through the crowd, "Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."_

"The scary thing is that he actually believes it," Clint muttered.

"My brother will never understand the truth of ruling," Thor spoke up for the first time in a while.

_An old man in the crowd pushed himself to his feet clearly not impressed by Loki's speech. "Not to men like you," he said defiantly._

"_There are no men like me," Loki laughed._

"_There are always men like you," the old man said dismissively._

"_Look to your elder, people," Loki said raising the sceptre and directing it at the old man, "let him be an example."_

_Loki fired off a blast but just in time Steve dropped down in front of him and deflected the blast. It flew straight back at Loki and knocked him off of his feet._

"Nice timing Steve," Bruce said appreciatively.

"_You know, the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing," Steve said matter-of-factly as braver members of the crowd rose as he walked past._

"_The soldier," Loki quipped pushing himself to his feet, "the man out of time."_

"_I'm not the one who's out of time," Steve quipped in return as the quinjet flew in behind him._

"And here was me thinking you couldn't make any good retorts to save your life Steve," Toni joked with a slight smile.

_Natasha was shown hitting buttons on the interior of the quinjet as a gun dropped from within the fuselage of the plane. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down," Natasha spoke over the PA._

_Loki made an attempt to fire at the plane but it dodged out of the way in time. Whilst Loki was somewhat distracted Steve flung his shield at him making contact with his armour as the civilians ran to get out of the way of the fight. The pair threw a few more jabs at each other before Loki's sceptre managed to throw Steve back but he quickly made a recovery._

"This is the bit where it's going to get interesting," Clint said and he wasn't being sarcastic. Mostly he just wanted to see Loki get a little bit beaten up.

_Steve flung his shield once more but Loki was ready and deflected it with the sceptre so Steve decided just to charge at him. More blows were exchanged until Steve was once again flung out of the way this time landing flat on the ground. As he tried to get up Loki pushed the sceptre down on his head and muttered, "Kneel," in a dangerous tone._

_But Steve just replied with, "not today," and kicked Loki in the face after brushing the sceptre off. Natasha and the quinjet came in closer but Natasha worriedly pointed out, "the guy's all over the place," as Steve was thrown off Loki once more._

_Suddenly Toni's voice came over the PA, "hey Tasha, you miss me!"_

"Only you Toni," Natasha said with a smile remembering the moment. It had been the first contact she had with her friend in months and she had been relieved to hear that she had agreed to help. God knows Toni didn't trust the government as far as she could throw them.

_The display screen on the jet fluctuated before the systems acknowledged that the PA system had been overwritten as 'Shoot To Thrill,' began to play._

"You had to enter to AC/DC right Toni," Bruce laughed.

"Of course," Toni replied, "what am I without my AC/DC?"

"Less annoying," Natasha quipped which earned her a joking glare seeing as Toni knew Tasha wasn't really serious.

"It was quite a shock to me," Steve said giving his two cents on the matter.

_The light from Toni's suit came streaking through the sky as she slammed directly into Loki who appeared to be adjusting to the change in noise level. He was left sitting on the steps as Toni landed neatly on one knee before straightening out and opening up the weapons systems of the suit, "make your move Reindeer Games," she quipped._

"You have to give everyone a nickname don't you Toni," Steve said exasperated.

"Yes," Toni said not giving him the satisfaction of her getting upset over his exasperation.

_Steve walked up beside her as Loki used magic to banish his armour including the antler like headgear that had warranted the nickname and put his hands up. "Good move," Toni decided as she let the weapons fold back into position._

"_Miss Stark," Steve said._

"_Captain," was Toni's simple reply._

"And now we get to see all of their interactions again," Natasha sighed although she sometimes found the banter between the pair amusing it could get annoying. Especially since Steve was working off a lot of false assumptions as to how Toni really was.

**A/n: Expect bonus Toni next chapter and major changes in the Thor/Toni scene because there is no way that Toni would go barging in there the way Tony did. **


	10. Meet Thor

Chapter 10 – Meet Thor

**A/n – Here goes! This chapter has the most changes of any so far I think so I hope you enjoy it.**

**Booklover2526: I'm glad you liked that bit :D**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm extremely flattered that my chapters are highlights :) Here comes Thor**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I have tons of AC/DC CD's and they all remind me of Tony now :D Yeah that speech he makes always made me uneasy it's just ugh! It's how it's meant to make you react though so well done to the writers I guess. I wonder how you managed that seeing as we're both girls :D But feel free to be like Toni. You're just about to find out but here's a clue. She's not going to go barging straight in.**

**paisley15: For reasons that will become clear the Iron Man suit has a voice changer so Toni sounds male when she speaks in it unless it is over a comm unit. Gemma Arterton is who I picture in my head but make up your own mind. **

**MelodyPotterSnape: I'm glad you liked it**

**3 Avengers: I'm going to look forward to writing them :D I'm flattered that you look forward to an update of this story.**

**Guest: I'm glad you're still enjoying this story.**

**Harm Marie: Good :D**

**Dragones: I still haven't decided about Phil yet. Still think Toni might have figured out the deception by now so I'm leaning the other way. And while Toni is impulsive still I reckon she wouldn't rush in as much because she's more prone to thinking first. In my head anyway**

_As Natasha and the agent she had brought with her as co-pilot escorted Loki to the quinjet Toni began to follow them and climbed aboard. "Come on then, Captain," she said as he lingered behind which seemed to spur Steve into action as he hurried onto the jet as Natasha prepared for take-off._

_The minute the jet was in the air Toni removed the Iron Man helmet and let her hair out of the bun she wore it in whilst in the suit. Loki appeared to be shocked by her appearance as he obviously hadn't known that Toni Stark wasn't short for Anthony._

"The one piece of information he was missing, why was it about you?" Bruce asked puzzled.

"I don't know," Toni replied, "yes, my file is emptier than it probably should be but my gender is still there. Maybe he just assumed going by the misnomer."

_Toni simply rolled her eyes at his shock and turned to Natasha, "are you going to check in now?"_

_Natasha nodded stiffly in reply and reached for her radio, "Director Fury, this is Agent Romanoff, we have Loki, do you copy?"_

"_Is he saying anything?" Fury asked over the radio._

"_Not a word," Natasha replied._

"My brother would not wish to say anything for fear of giving something away," Thor said attempting to explain away at least some of Loki's actions.

"_Just get him here we're low on time," Fury said exasperatedly._

"_I don't like it," Steve said quietly to Toni._

"_What, Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Toni quipped._

"Why are you two exchanging banter already? Annie?" Natasha asked puzzled.

"It's my father's fault," Toni said but left it at that refusing to elaborate no matter how many more questions the others asked her. The truth was all through her childhood her father had relentlessly belittled her for not being Steve. It had been bad enough that she had been born a girl but she didn't even live up to his ridiculous expectations.

"_I don't remember it being that easy," Steve pointed out, "This guy packs a wallop."_

"_Still, you did pretty well for someone who hasn't practiced in a while," Toni joked, "what's your thing Pilates?"_

"I was just trying to ease a little bit of the tension," Toni muttered softly to Steve, "I find it hard to talk to you."

"_What?" Steve said confused clearly not realising that Toni's tone wasn't unkind._

"_It's like calisthenics," Toni continued not willing to be embarrassed, "You might have missed a couple of things doing time as a Capsicle."_

"Damn Toni," Clint said with a whistle, "you don't hold back do you."

"_Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in," Steve said accusingly._

"_Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you," Toni snapped clearly not happy with how he was acting. But before Steve could get in any sort of retort lightning began to crackle around the quinjet and Natasha said worriedly, "where's this coming from?"_

_Loki sat up straighter in his seat eyeing the ceiling warily. "What's the matter?" Steve inquired, "Are you scared of a little lightning?"_

"_I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki quipped in return._

_As the quinjet jolted as something impacted it Thor was shown to be crouched on the roof. Toni quickly retrieved her helmet and slipped out some sort of device into her hand. There came several more bumps to the quinjet which caused Toni to reach over and open the rear hatch. "What are you doing?" Steve shouted to be heard over the wind. _

"_The longer it stays shut the more damage that would be inflicted if someone decided to try and force it open," Toni pointed out._

"You did have a point there," Steve admitted, "I wasn't sure what to make of you as you seemed to change personalities at the drop of a hat."

_Instantly Thor dropped down onto the open hatch and Loki's face fell. Seeing Toni near to the entrance he punched his hammer into her chest and she flew backwards across the deck of the quinjet. Once she was out of the way Thor grabbed Loki and departed. _

"Once again I must apologise Friend Stark, I did not know that you meant no real harm," Thor apologised.

"And I've told you it's fine, I've already forgiven you. And could you at least try and call me Toni. It feels like you don't like me when you call me by my surname," Toni said quietly.

"_And now Thor's arrived," Toni said exasperatedly._

"_Another Asgardian?" Natasha shouted back._

"_That guy's a friendly?" Steve asked._

"_Yes, but at the moment it doesn't matter," Toni replied, "he's acting rashly and I really don't like being hit with hammers. We need to talk to him."_

"Thank you for realising that my actions were not that of a hostile Friend St…" Thor said pausing slightly before managing to say, "Toni."

This elicited a rare, completely genuine smile from Toni which made the awkwardness of the situation a little less irritating. Toni hardly ever smiled like that except when around Piper or Bruce.

"_Stark, we need a plan of attack," Steve shouted._

"_I have a plan," Toni said before she leapt from the quinjet and flew in the direction that Thor had taken Loki._

_Steve obviously was not impressed that she hadn't seen fit to share this plan with him and grabbed a parachute from the storage area._

"Couldn't just trust that the person in the room with an IQ of 189 had a workable plan could you Cap?" Natasha laughed.

"_I'd sit this one out, Cap," Natasha warned._

"_I don't see how I can," Steve said as he strapped the parachute on._

"_These guys come from legend. They're basically gods," Natasha continued, "And Annie knows what she's doing."_

"I was kind of shocked to hear you give her a nickname to be honest," Steve confessed.

"I get that reaction a lot don't worry," Natasha said smiling.

"_There's only one god, ma'am," Steve said passionately, "and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." With that thought expressed Steve grabbed his shield and launched himself from the quinjet._

Steve's comment elicited quiet laughter from the group whatever their individual beliefs in the existence of a god were. Even Thor found his comment slightly amusing although for different reasons than the others.

_There was a resounding thump as Thor slammed Loki down onto a shelf of rock. After getting over the initial shock of the landing Loki began to laugh._

"_Where is the Tesseract?" Thor asked bitterly._

"_I missed you, too," Loki said continuing laughing._

"_Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" Thor inquired angrily._

"Definitely Shakespearian," Toni said with a slight smile.

"_You should thank me," Loki said sitting up, "with the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the Allfather have to muster to conjure you here to your precious Earth?"_

_Thor dropped Mjolnir onto the ground before launching himself at Loki and grabbing hold of him, "I thought you dead," he spat out._

"_Did you mourn?" Loki asked curiously but his tone saying that he obviously thought that Thor hadn't._

"_We all did," Thor stated, "our father…"_

"_Your father," Loki interrupted bitterly._

"I was right to peg it as familial issues," Toni said.

_Thor let go of him as he continued, "he did tell you my true parentage, did he not?"_

"_We were raised together," Thor pointed out, "we played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?"_

"_I remember a shadow," Loki said bitterly, "living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I, who was, and should be king," Loki spat out angrily._

Toni sighed as she realised that in this matter she could truly relate to Loki. She had been living in Steve's shadow for her entire life and no matter what she did she couldn't escape it. And when Steve met her he had damn well done his best to keep making her feel inferior. It was one of the reasons she hadn't been able to stop herself lashing out at him.

"_So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?" Thor said sadly, "No. The Earth is under my protection, Loki."_

_Loki didn't seem to be able to stop his laughter upon hearing that statement, "and you're doing a marvellous job with that. The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly fret. I mean to rule them, as why should I not?"_

"_You think yourself above them?" Thor asked disappointedly._

"_Well, yes," Loki said as if that should have been perfectly obvious._

"Lovely," Clint muttered sarcastically.

"_Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother," Thor continued sadly, "A throne would suit you ill."_

_Loki's face contorted with anger upon hearing Thor's honest words and he shoved his brother out of the way before stalking back up the rock ledge shouting back, "I've seen worlds you've never known about! I have grown, Odinson, in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract and when I wield it…"_

"_Who showed you this power?" Thor interrupted, "Who controls the would-be king?"_

"I'm glad you noticed that he wasn't acting alone," Toni said appreciatively.

"_I am a king!" Loki roared._

"_Not here!" Thor said getting angry once more, "You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream! You come home."_

The others all knew this had been wishful thinking and even Thor did now but they didn't want to say anything. It was too personal to touch even if some of them sorely wished to.

"_I don't have it," Loki laughed._

_Thor snarled and summoned Mjolnir to his hand from its position on the ground as Loki continued, "You need the Cube to bring me home. But I've sent it off, I know not where."_

"_You listen well, brother," Thor began._

"_Well, I would but someone else is here," Loki jibed pointing to where Toni was floating in the sky._

_Thor began to spin his hammer again but Toni cut him off, "I'd rather you didn't attempt to injure me again thanks. I'd like the Tesseract back just as much as you."_

"_This matter is no business of yours Man of Iron," Thor stated. _

"Always with the misnomer, although I suppose it's my fault for installing the voice changer into all my suits but the Mark I and as I said before that was a pile of junk," Toni sighed.

"_Look, you want to stop an invasion of Earth just as much as I do, I live here! That makes it my business," Toni said shortly. She was obviously not pleased with Thor's attitude._

_Loki had seen this as an opportunity to try to escape but Toni was ready for him as she dropped the metal device from her hand at his feet. When it made contact with the ground a force field sprung up around him. _

"_What is this magic Man of Iron?" Thor asked accusingly._

"_Not magic," Toni sighed, "technology! It's only temporary and I'm sure some form of magic could trick it. I don't have much of an opportunity to test it on people who can use magic. But I'm pretty sure it'll stop an escape for now."_

"Why didn't we use that on the helicarrier as well?" Steve asked.

"A) I only had one on me," Toni clarified, "and B) like I said it would eventually be tricked by some form of magic because I couldn't defend against it."

_Before Thor had a chance to reply to this statement Steve landed on the ledge beside him and gazed bewilderedly at the blue force field surrounding Loki which was admittedly already beginning to flicker as Loki was starting to break out._

"_We should take this back to the quinjet, Thor you're welcome to accompany us," he said trying to keep the peace and thankfully Thor agreed to do so on the proviso that he could keep his eyes on his brother at all times._

_Toni however declined and said, "I'll make my own way there."_

This meant that Toni had to explain to the others that as she had retrieved the coordinates for the helicarrier's location from Natasha's computer and now she simply wanted to fly there herself rather than stay in the same small space as Loki, Thor & Steve who had all been attacking her at least a little.

**A/n: I hope the changes in this chapter don't put too many people off. Fingers crossed :) **


	11. A Meeting of Minds

Chapter 11 – A Meeting Of Minds

**A/n: I'm aware that there were mixed reactions to the changes last chapter which I had expected but I'm glad that you all were nice to me about your opinions so thank you.**

**HockeyGal09: I'm glad you enjoy seeing updates of this story :) Enjoy!**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Was so glad when you reviewed. I'm really glad you still enjoyed the chapter **

**paisley15: I tried to foreshadow the force field as much as possible. When she tells JARVIS they need to get to work after her phone call with Phil she's working on the bug and the force field. And she slips it into her hand whilst on the quinjet. I'm glad you liked it anyway. Her name is Gemma Arterton so you were mostly there :D Those are basically my thoughts on her. She's gorgeous but sometimes her hair is just… no**

**MelodyPotterSnape: Thank you, glad you liked!**

**youwannabekate: For Tony you're right it would be OOC but for Toni it's slightly different. She was raised to be a proper lady meaning that it's ingrained in her personality not to be too impolite to people. Steve just gets on her last nerve because of all the comparisons made between them which is why she still lashes out at him sometimes.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Yay, you reviewed I was getting worried. And yeah it would be quite funny to see Tony watching Toni's actions there :) Yeah me too, enjoy Thor's shock in this chapter when she comes in**

**Ashtree1165: I'm flattered that you like this story if it's not your usual type. And yeah Tony always works weirdly well as a girl :D **

_The helicarrier was shown making its way through the sky as 12 armed guards escorted Loki through its halls. Within the SHIELD laboratory Bruce was working on the tracking device for the cube as the group made its way past. Loki smirked happily at Bruce through the window as Bruce removed his glasses contemplatively._

"I didn't understand why he looked so pleased to be there," Bruce admitted, "I get it now."

_When the group reached the detention area Loki was placed in the glass cell and the pressurised lock engaged. From around the side Fury appeared walking towards the computer and he spoke, "in case it's unclear, if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass," here Fury paused to hit the red button in the centre of the display and the floor beneath the cell opened up._

"_It's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap, you get how that works?" Fury continued being forced to shout over the sound of the wind rushing into the helicarrier._

"If it hadn't been designed for completely barbaric reasons it might have been a good system," Toni admitted, "although of course it probably had some sort of design flaw. SHIELD tech usually does."

"The tech doesn't have flaws as such Annie it's just not as good as yours because none of our developers have your intellect," Natasha sighed rolling her eyes.

"Like I said," Toni said shrugging, "flawed!"

_Once he was sure he had gotten his point across Fury closed over the floor again before gesturing first at Loki and then at the computer saying, "ant, boot."_

"It's just like Director Fury to remember all the jibes that have been made at him," Clint muttered.

_Loki stepped back into the middle of the cell chuckling at Fury's turn of phrase, "it's an impressive cage," he admitted, "Not built, I think, for me."_

"_Built for something a lot stronger than you," Fury told him._

"_Oh, I've heard," Loki said turning to face the security camera. The footage from the cell was shown to be being watched by Natasha on a screen, "A mindless beast. Makes play he's still a man."_

_Upon hearing that Natasha looked up carefully to look at Bruce who had his arms crossed and was clearly unimpressed._

"All that talk of Fury trusting me," Bruce laughed bitterly, "and he's still trying to think of ways to get rid of me. Not that I was surprised, spies aren't supposed to trust anybody. Let alone people like me."

This was not helping Natasha's lingering feelings of guilt about what had happened on the helicarrier and how the destruction that followed her words had been almost entirely her fault.

"_How desperate are you that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki continued as Thor was shown listening intently._

"_How desperate am I?" Fury said incredulously, "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control."_

"You couldn't control it either yet you had no qualms with using it," Steve butted in.

"_You talk about peace and you kill cause it's fun," Fury continued, "You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."_

"_Ooh," Loki said clearly not impressed by Fury's little speech, "It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share," upon saying this he through another significant look at the camera which Hill was shown watching._

"I get that the quip was directed at you Toni but you weren't even there at the time," Steve said puzzled.

"He probably figured I would be," Toni pointed out, "he couldn't exactly see us he was just making quips at the camera and hoping the person they were intended for was watching."

"_And then to be reminded what real power is," Loki concluded._

_Fury scoffed and began to walk out of the room. "Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something," he quipped._

The tense mood in the room was somewhat broken as they all chuckled a little at Fury's sarcasm. The mood had been too bitter for laughter on the helicarrier but the comment had been rather amusing.

_Loki walked directly up to the camera as was shown on Steve's computer screen before they all closed down. _

"_He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce quipped trying not to show that he was upset by Loki's comments about him although it showed in his eyes._

"_Loki's gonna drag this out," Steve predicted, "So, Thor, what's his play?"_

"_He has an army called the Chitauri," Thor informed the group, "They're not of Asgard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth in return, I expect, for the Tesseract."_

"_An army…" Steve said sceptically, "…from outer space."_

"You really had a lot to catch up on didn't you?" Clint said with a low whistle.

"_So, he's building another portal," Bruce deduced, "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."_

"_Selvig?" Thor questioned clearly shocked to be hearing the name._

"_He's an astrophysicist," Bruce explained._

"_He's a friend," Thor replied simply._

"I'm sorry, it must have been hard for you to find out like that," Bruce said regretfully.

"I am grateful that I found out then Friend Banner and not when we came across him on the side of my brother. There is no need for your apology," Thor said brushing off the apology.

"_Loki has him under some sort of spell, along with one of ours," Natasha explained although it was clearly a touchy subject for her._

"Aww, you do care!" Clint teased good-naturedly which earned him a slap on the back of the head from Natasha although it wasn't as hard as it could have been. This reduced Toni to quiet sniggers about how obvious the pair was.

"_I want to know why Loki let us take him," Steve brought up as it was clearly still bothering him, "he's not leading an army from here."_

"You were right to be bothered by it but to be honest right then we had more important things to focus on," Natasha admitted.

"_I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Bruce suggested, "that guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him."_

"_Have care how you speak," Thor said imperiously, "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."_

"_He killed 80 people in two days," Natasha said disbelievingly as if wondering who would associate with the man after that family member or not._

"_He's adopted," Thor was quick to point out upon hearing this room._

This made everyone in the room but Toni and Thor laugh. While Toni had found the sudden change in attitude amusing she had a feeling that Loki being adopted and it being used against him like that might have been a reason that he was so bitter towards his family.

"_It think it's about the mechanics," Bruce theorised, "Iridium… what do they need the iridium for?"_

"_It's a stabilising agent," Toni said as she entered the room in a black cat suit similar to Natasha's which was clearly what she wore under her suit for manoeuvrability. _

Clint wolf whistled at seeing her in the tight fitting Lycra which earned him a death glare from Toni and another whack to the back of the head from Natasha.

"_I'm just saying, pick a weekend. I'll fly you to Portland," Toni said returning to her conversation with Phil, "Keep love alive."_

"That was nice of you," Steve muttered although the subject of Coulson's future plans was still touchy seeing as he hadn't gotten to go through with any of them.

_Phil clearly embarrassed that Toni was talking about this in front of the rest of the group gestured that she should turn back to the other conversation topic. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD," Toni explained before pausing next to Thor, "no hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing."_

"_I apologise, I did not know…" Thor began._

"_I said no hard feelings," Toni reiterated as she made her way open to the computer screens before continuing with her explanation as if she had never stopped, "Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long, as Loki wants."_

_She turned to face the computer screens before muttering, "Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails," completely confusing all the SHIELD agents working on the floor. "That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice but we did," she exclaimed pointing at a SHIELD agent sitting in the last row._

"I was impressed that you came in during the middle of a conversation and didn't require any help catching up and you kept dipping in and out of your explanation," Bruce complimented making Toni smile at him.

_Toni frowned and briefly covered her left eye with her hand before asking, "How does Fury even see these?"_

"_He turns," Agent Hill said exasperatedly. _

"_Sounds exhausting," Toni joked obviously knowing that Hill wouldn't see the humour in the situation. _

"All work and no play pretty much sums up Agent Hill," Clint laughed.

"_The rest of the raw materials," she continued suddenly back on track once more, "Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily," she began clearing things from the screens to have something to do with her hands, "The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube."_

_As she spoke this last line she neatly slipped another similar tiny metal device to the force field from earlier onto the computer systems using her clearing of the screens as a cover._

"That was slick," Clint complimented amazed.

"_When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked._

"_Last night," Toni clarified, "the packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"_

"_Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked clearly not comfortable with Toni's ability to process information so quickly._

"_He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce said suddenly butting in._

"_Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect," Toni said walking forward visibly thrilled that someone understood what she had been saying._

"_Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet," Bruce replied._

"_Finally, someone who speaks English," Toni said pleased._

"Only person I've met who can keep up with me in more than one field. Best day of my life," Toni laughed.

Bruce was attempting not to show how incredibly touched he was by this statement but clearly didn't do very well because Toni walked over beside him and took a seat there.

"_Is that what just happened?" Steve muttered sarcastically._

_Toni and Bruce shook hands as Toni said, "It's good to meet you Dr. Banner. Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster."_

_There was a slight pause before Bruce managed to force out a bewildered, "thanks."_

"I was shocked that you knew what I was but that it didn't seem to bother you," Bruce admitted quietly to Toni so the others couldn't really hear. He didn't want to make any of them feel bad about how they treated him back then.

"_Dr Banner is only here to track the cube," Fury said angrily as he walked in, "I was hoping you might join him."_

"_I would start with that stick of his," Steve recommended, "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."_

"Sceptre, Steve, sceptre," Toni muttered exasperatedly.

"_I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube," Fury said picking up where Steve left off, "And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."_

Clint flinched at the mention of being under Loki's control but the tact of the team remained and none of them commented on it. Unless Clint reached out to them they didn't want to interfere unless it got really bad.

"_Monkeys? I do not understand," Thor said confused._

"Note to self; get Thor to watch The Wizard of Oz. JARVIS has every movie on demand anyway. Well apart from these," Toni muttered quietly.

"_I do," Steve blurted out, "I understood that reference."_

"One of the few I was getting before I moved in here," Steve sighed. Adjusting had not been the easiest thing in the world for him.

"_Shall we play, Doctor?" Toni said turning to Bruce obviously fed up with the idle chatter. _

"_This way, ma'am," Bruce said pointing down the corridor._

_Back over near to the wall one of the male agents switched his screen back to Galaga._

This caused a lot of raucous laughter to come from the team who had honestly thought Toni had been kidding about someone playing a video game instead of working during a global crisis.

**A/n: Originally the first part of the lab scene was going to be in here but I wanted to get this up now so it will be in the next chapter :) Love always 3**


	12. A Friendship Begins

Chapter 12 – A Friendship Begins

**A/n: Yay for positive responses to the last chapter. These scenes are my favourites from the movies so I'm really hoping I'm doing them justice. Even more Bruce/Toni to come in this one **

**paisley15: Glad I didn't disappoint for like I said these scenes are my faves :D Yeah I thought about it for a while and then realised that she would have to wear something like that just because skirts etc… are so inconvenient when she's in a hurry**

**Booklover2526: I'm glad that you think so :)**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: It's okay as long as you review it's fine :) I love that bit too and I'm pretty sure I did that at some point so we have that in common**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I've always kind of pictured Toni as more spy like than Tony. Plus do you really think Tasha and Toni spent all that time together without Toni picking up a few spy moves. That'll come to light later. And I'm not hating on Galaga, no siree!**

**Harm Marie: Glad to hear it **

_The exterior of the helicarrier was displayed once more before the scene changed to the lab where Bruce was scanning Loki's sceptre. "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports of the Tesseract," Bruce confirmed, "but it's going to take weeks to process."_

_Toni simply shrugged this off turning to a Stark Industries computer screen she had obviously had brought in. "If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster," she explained typing the password to access the scree in, "we can clock this at around 600 teraflops."_

"I have a feeling I'm not going to understand much of this scene," Steve said quietly. He wasn't going to enjoy being made to feel like an idiot again but maybe it didn't matter too much because compared to Toni and to a lesser extent Bruce everyone was an idiot.

"_All I packed was a toothbrush," Bruce laughed._

"_You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime," Toni suggested, "Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it. It's Candy Land."_

"You were right about that," Bruce laughed, "when I first got here I had every intention of leaving again but those labs and the chance of having some company for once trapped me."

"You're not exactly unhappy about it so who cares," Toni said shrugging.

"_Thanks, but the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke Harlem," Bruce said hesitantly._

Steve looked alarmed at this mention but quickly wiped the expression from his face and prayed that Bruce hadn't seen it. He didn't want to alienate his friend.

"_Well, I promise a stress-free environment," Toni said._

There was general laughter in the room at that comment as Stark Tower was far from stress-free. But they had to admit that Toni did know how to liven things up in a good way as well as in an annoying one.

"_No tension, no surprises," Toni continued before using the electrified stick in her hands to poke Bruce._

"I've always wondered; why did you do that? Why have that much faith in me we had only just met?" Bruce inquired.

"Because nobody else did," Toni said simply but on seeing everyone else give her significant looks she expanded on her statement, "look you do know that Piper used to be jealous of you right."

"Jealous," Bruce almost stuttered out, "of me!"

"Even before I met you although it got worse for a while afterwards," Toni confirmed, "he didn't like that yours were the only scientific papers I actually read seeing as I swore off reading papers in general when I kept spotting mistakes. So my first impression of you was that you had the intelligence to keep up with me in more than one area and finding out about the Hulk couldn't take that away. Plus I never trust SHIELD's files without a second opinion; I delete things from my file all the time plus Piper's alterations as just one example. So I reserved judgement and then I met you and you clearly had a lid on it and I just wanted to convince you of that fact so I went out of my way to 'provoke' you so you'd have more faith in yourself."

"Thank you," Bruce muttered seemingly out of words other than those.

The other Avengers just sat there watching with varying looks of astonishment before JARVIS restarted the movie to break the awkward silence.

"_Ow!" Bruce shouted clearly shocked that someone had decided to do that to him of all people._

"_Hey!" Steve shouted as he came into the room but Toni blatantly ignored him keeping her focus on Bruce saying, "Nothing?"  
_

"_Are you nuts?" Steve said trying to get her attention._

"_Jury's out," Toni said simply as Bruce turned back to his work openly chuckling, "you really have got a lid on it, haven't you?"_

"I can see that you were trying to big him up now," Steve said, "sorry Toni."

"Will you please not apologise for everything you said back then because honestly a) you've already apologised for half of it and b) there is literally no point to it because the stuff I actually held a grudge against you for is the stuff that you already apologised for," Toni sighed exasperated.

"_What's your secret?" Toni asked teasingly, "Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"_

"And that's the second time someone asked me," Bruce laughed clearly having gotten over the shock of Toni's speech.

"It does seem to have been a popular conversation topic Friend Banner," Thor confirmed.

"_Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked incredulously._

"_Funny things are," Toni stated._

"_Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve said bitingly before quickly adding, "No offense Doc."_

"Didn't really help Toni's cause there Steve," Bruce joked. Steve's comment hadn't really offended him as he was used to comments like that and knew very well that he could be very dangerous. But it had taken away a little of the novelty of someone being there who had at least some faith in him and his control over the other guy.

"_It's all right," Bruce muttered, "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things," as he said that he threw Toni a significant look._

"_You're tip-toeing big man," Toni said trying to salvage the situation, "you need to strut."_

"_And you need to focus on the problem, Miss Stark," Steve snapped._

"_Do you think I'm not?" Toni asked, "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."_

"I thought you weren't focusing because you were talking to Bruce, didn't realise that your brain is even better than Howard's at processing more than one thing at once," Steve said candidly.

Toni stiffened briefly upon hearing Howard's name but promptly shook it off and tried to make it look like she hadn't reacted. Bruce was the only one who noticed the brief change in her body language and frowned at Steve because everyone knew that Howard Stark was taboo in Stark Tower. He hadn't thought his statement through thoroughly enough.

"_You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve said incredulously._

"_He's a spy," Toni said giving as good as she was getting, "Captain, he's 'the' spy. His secrets have secrets," in between words she threw a blueberry into her mouth before gesturing to Bruce, "it's bugging him, too. Isn't it?"_

"_Uh…" Bruce said hesitantly clearly not wanting to admit to it, "I just want to finish my work here, and…"_

"_Doctor?" Steve interrupted clearly recognising Bruce's tone for what it was._

_Bruce gave Toni another nervous glance before sighing and removing his glasses. "'A warm light for all mankind,'" he quoted, "Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."_

"_I heard it," Steve said._

"Oh I see what you're getting at," Natasha said coming to a sudden realisation.

"_Well, I think that was meant for you," Bruce said turning back to Toni who simply sighed and offered him a blueberry._

_Taking it Bruce continued, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."_

"It's nice being on the news for good reasons," Toni said with a smile, "well my definition although I'm sure many members of the military would disagree."

"_The Stark Tower? That big, ugly," Steve's tone was humorous until he was met with a glare from Toni and he hastened to finish, "building in New York."_

"You have to be careful to avoid Toni's glare," Clint said with a shudder as he had been on the receiving end of that glare too many times in his opinion. Once was really too often with that look.

"_It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source," Bruce informed him, "that building will run itself for, what, a year?"_

"_It's just the prototype," Toni confirmed before turning to Steve, "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."_

"_So," Bruce said getting to his final point, "why didn't SHIELD bring her in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"_

"I guess we should have figured you two would figure out that something was up," Natasha sighed.

"_I should probably look into that once my decryption programme finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," Toni said matter-of-factly walking around the lab bench and pulling out a miniature computer screen from somewhere within her outfit._

"Where was that exactly?" Clint teased but he regretted it almost immediately as it earned him a glare from Toni and another whack across the head from Natasha.

"_I'm sorry. Did you say…?" Steve said clearly taken aback by this change in direction._

"_JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge," Toni interrupted, "in a few hours; I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?"_

"At least those not related to you which you already knew," Natasha muttered as everyone else laughed at the abrupt offer made at the end of Toni's statement.

"_Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around," Steve said pointedly ignoring the offer._

"_An intelligence organisation that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome," Toni pointed out._

Clint and Natasha winced at the comparison for while they knew it was accurate it wasn't something they really wanted to hear. They were already rapidly losing faith in their employers due to this film but despite Amora's intentions it only seemed to be bringing the team closer together. Making them watch this had been a serious error in judgement.

"_I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve retorted, "this is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them."_

"_Following's not really my style," Toni said innocently whilst still eating blueberries._

"Got into too much trouble by following people like my dad and realised I was better off doing things my own way cause nobody gave a damn about me," Toni said matter-of-factly ignoring the pitying glances that she got as a result of the comment.

"_And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve jibed._

"You don't start a war of words with Toni," Natasha said with a smirk.

"_Of the people in this room, which one is A) wearing a spangly outfit, and, B) not of use?" Toni retorted._

"Because that happens," Natasha finished as the Toni on screen gave a perfect example of her wit.

"_Steve," Bruce intervened, "tell me none of this smells a little funky to you."_

"Always the voice of reason huh Bruce," Clint said with a smile.

"Well someone has to be and I don't think Toni or Steve were really qualified for the job when they kept antagonising each other even if it was very entertaining to watch," Bruce laughed.

"_Just find the Cube," Steve said as he walked out. Once outside though Steve was clearly torn as to whether to believe them or keep trusting in authority as he hurried off._

"_That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Toni muttered bitterly to Bruce, "I'm wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice."_

"Was I…?" Steve began but wasn't sure how to continue.

"Part of the reason that my dad and I never really got on?" Toni finished on his behalf, "yes!"

"_Huh," Bruce said in acknowledgement and began to work once more, "the guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us."_

"_What he's got is an Acme dynamite kit," Toni said making her way back over to the Stark Industries screen, "it's going to blow up in his face. And I'm going to be there when it does."_

"Right on both counts, and on the next one," Bruce said with a smile. The others were confused but figured if it was the next point they'd understand soon enough.

"_Yeah. I'll read all about it," Bruce said sliding some information across to her screen._

"_Uh-huh," Toni said sceptically, "or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us."_

_Bruce let out a nervous chuckle before responding, "You see, I don't get a suit of armour. I'm exposed. Like a nerve. It's a nightmare."_

"_You know," Toni said, "I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart."_

"WHAT?!" the team minus Bruce and Toni shouted as one.

"How did that happen?" Clint asked nervously.

"I'm sure it'll come up," Toni muttered reluctant to get into it until she absolutely had to.

"_This stops it," she continued tapping the arc reactor and making her way over to Bruce, "This little circle of light, it's part of me now, not just armour."_

Steve felt a horrible jerking sensation in his chest as he thought about his remark to Toni later on during these events. Sure, he had apologised for it but he now realised that it had to have cut deeper than Toni had let on.

_Toni was now standing directly opposite Bruce on the other side of the computer screen, "it's a terrible privilege," she said almost nervously clearly not all that comfortable talking about it._

"_But you can control it," Bruce pointed out._

"_Because I learned how," Toni emphasised._

"_It's different," Bruce said shrugging her comments off and attempting to go back to working with the computer but Toni wasn't having any of that. She cleared the data on the screen away to the side so Bruce had to look directly at her and said, "Hey, I read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you."_

"_So you're saying that the Hulk…" Bruce began._

"Wait you slipped," Natasha said incredulously, "you were so resolute about calling him the other guy I just thought you never called him that."

"I got comfortable around Toni and it sort of slipped out as I am sure was her intention," Bruce replied earning a nod and a satisfied smile from the woman in question.

_Bruce looked down as he realised his slip of the tongue and corrected himself, "the other guy saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"_

"Lots of things," Toni said defensively clearly offended that Bruce didn't think his life was worth anything.

"I can see why Piper was jealous of Bruce," Clint whispered in Natasha's ear attempting to make sure Toni wouldn't hear and glare at him again for simply telling the truth.

"_I guess we'll find out," Toni said simply before walking back over to her own computer screen as Bruce brought back up the data on his._

"_You may not enjoy that," Bruce warned._

"_And you just might," Toni retorted quickly as they both returned to work._

_The scene changed to show a metal door with words on it reading, 'Secure Storage 10-C.' On the other side of the door Steve was struggling to force it open until the seal broke and he was able to slide it open and walk through. He quickly leapt up from the floor onto the access route higher up._

"Your comments bothered me because I was used to people in authority being reasonable," Steve admitted.

"Nobody in power is ever completely reasonable Steve," Toni said sadly.

**A/n: Sorry it's later than usual guys but here's the chapter :D **


	13. Orders vs Style

Chapter 13 – Orders vs. Style 

**A/n: And now the action really kicks off. Look forward to Toni exploding in this chapter :)**

**Booklover2526: Yay! Yeah the bickering is so much fun and I can never resist Bruce/Toni interactions.**

**Ashtree1165: I'm glad you liked the side talk, as the action kicks off there may be less of it but I'll try and keep it at a good level. **

**youwannabekate: But I already have plans for that scene and you wouldn't want to ruin my plans now would you. There will be interludes in this story after every movie and at other points including one at the beginning of Iron Man. I always thought that Piper would be purely because this is a guy she admires **_**and **_**spends all day with :)  
**

**amy: I'm glad this is making you feel better. Good luck on your midterms and I will continue to write this for you to read after them :D**

**paisley15: During this story they won't break up but when Piper comes back for the sequel (if I do decide to write it) then they might. And if they do it'll most likely be Bruce/Toni but I might make it Steve/Toni too**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Enjoy this chapter and keep up the excitement lol**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Steve will get a lot of Toni related feels but he brought them on himself in a way :) I know poor Toni but it's a great opportunity to bash SHIELD and forever change Clint and Natasha's loyalties.**

**Guest: At this point they're still together**

**twilightjazz: Yes, they are :) Enjoy **

**Harm Marie: Glad to hear it**

**ReaderoftheBooks: No, Loki does kind of like Toni and this will come to light during their conversation. Loki means that Toni is the only person in the world working on clean energy and that's what SHIELD are claiming to use the Tesseract for even though they're not really. He's doing it to make them suspicious and keep them apart. **

_A truck was driving steadily through a long tunnel within was the mobile lab that had been set up which shook slightly with the movement of the vehicle._

"Could have set it up better," Toni muttered going on to say something about stabilisers to Bruce that the rest of the team ignored seeing as they knew they wouldn't understand a thing she was saying anyway.

_On the bench to the side Selvig was working using tongs to lift the stolen iridium over the Tesseract and into the container that had been built to house it causing it power on with a sinister red glow._

"_As soon as Loki took the Doctor, we moved Jane Foster," Coulson informed Thor, "They've got an excellent observatory in Tromsø. She was asked to consult there very suddenly yesterday. Handsome fee, private plane, very remote. She'll be safe."_

"Although not very happy when she found out why she was asked to consult there so suddenly by all accounts," Clint laughed.

Thor threw him a very disgruntled look but couldn't argue with that. Jane hadn't been happy that she had been moved away from what was going on and had scolded Thor quite thoroughly for it despite him trying to explain that SHIELD had done it before he had inquired about her safety. That had led to another lecture about how she should have been his first priority which had left Piper and Clint trembling because Natasha and Toni both appeared to be taking mental notes.

"_Thank you," Thor said gratefully, "it's no accident, Loki taking Erik Selvig. I dread what he plans for him once he's done. Erik is a good man."_

"_He talks about you a lot," Coulson said softly, "You changed his life. You changed everything around here."_

"I find myself afraid that not all of influence was for the better," Thor said sadly.

"Nobody always has a good influence on everybody. It simply doesn't work like that," Toni said comfortingly, "you simply have to try and influence some people positively which you have."

Thor gave her a brief smile before turning back to the screen.

"_They were better as they were," Thor sighed, "We pretend on Asgard that we're more advanced but we come here battling like bilge snipe."_

"_Like what?" Coulson asked confused._

"_Bilge snipe," Thor reiterated throwing in actions, "You know, huge, scaly, big antlers. You don't have those?"  
_

"By the sounds of that description I'm glad we don't," Natasha said with a look of distaste at the mere thought of such a creature.

"_I don't think so," Coulson replied._

"_Well, they are repulsive," Thor continued, "and they trample everything in their path." Thor paused to stare out of the windows of the deck at the dark before resuming his words, "when I first came to Earth, Loki's rage followed me here, and your people paid the price. And now, again. In my youth, I courted war."_

"So did I Thor, that doesn't make you a bad person," Toni said sympathetically. It just means that you made mistakes and that's what makes you a good person. Because you learned from them and weren't doomed to the endless cycle that Loki was."

"_War hasn't started yet," Fury said intruding on the conversation, "you think you could make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?"_

"_I do not know," Thor replied, "Loki's mind is far afield. It is not just power he craves, it's vengeance, upon me. There's no pain would prise his need from him."_

"_A lot of guys think that," Fury said in a sinister tone, "until the pain starts."_

"It's official; the moment that I see Fury I'm going to punch him in the face," Toni seethed, "that was the most insensitive thing he has ever said by a long shot. He can't even fire me because I'm only a consultant. And he can't threaten me because I can hack their files and destroy everything they have in an instant. Don't think I wouldn't."

"_What are you asking me to do?" Thor asked apprehensively as Fury leaned down on the railing next to the stairs._

"_I'm asking, what are you prepared to do?" Fury said bitingly._

"_Loki is a prisoner," Thor spat out._

"_Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat who wants to be here," Fury asked incredulously. _

"As much as I don't like him I have to admit he was right there," Bruce interjected.

"Common sense," Toni said brushing it aside not keen to give Fury any form of compliment at all.

_The scene changed to show Loki pacing up and down the Hulk-proof cell until at one end he paused as if hearing something and smirked before saying softly, "there's not many people who can sneak up on me."_

_He turned and there stood Natasha who said plainly, "but you figured I'd come."_

"Please don't finish Loki's thoughts Tasha; I know you're good at what you do but just no," Clint muttered darkly.

"_After," Loki said with a smile, "after whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend as a balm. And I would cooperate."_

"Like that would be SHIELD's plan," Natasha scoffed, "I've come to see that SHIELD is far from as sophisticated as I thought which is primarily Toni's fault."

Upon hearing this a genuine grin lit up Toni's face. She always loved getting one up on SHIELD as she had come to truly hate most of its members excluding Phil, Natasha & Clint.

"_I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton," Natasha said coolly almost clinically._

Steve, Bruce and Thor looked bewildered and looked between Clint and Natasha several times as if determining what was between them. But Clint and Toni knew better (even if Toni knew there was at least something between Clint and Tasha) this was Natasha and she was getting information the way she knew best.

"_I would say I've expanded his mind," Loki explained._

Clint could tell that it wasn't going to be very pleasant for him to sit through this scene. Loki was going to throw something in Natasha's face and it wouldn't turn out well for him. As if sensing this Natasha grabbed hold of his arm and Toni left her seat beside Bruce and sat down on his other side to do the same thing.

"_And once you've won," Natasha said her tone not altering, "once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?"_

"_Oh… Is this love Agent Romanoff?" Loki teased._

Toni had to try very hard not to laugh or make some sort of comment about how even Loki noticed something between Natasha and Clint although she was probably just about to deny it. She was sitting right next to the pair and there was nobody in the world that she was more scared of than Natasha really despite their close friendship.

"_Love is for children. I owe him a debt," Natasha said in a monotone determined not to let any emotion show._

"_Tell me," Loki said clearly convinced the ball was in his court._

_Natasha considered her approach for a moment before softening her voice to contain somewhat real emotions as she walked over to take a seat, "before I worked for SHIELD… I, uh… Well I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call."_

"Yeah well it was fairly obvious that nobody actually told you that your moral values were off kilter," Clint said shrugging off his act.

"_And what will you do if I vow to spare him?" Loki said trickily_

"_Not let you out," Natasha replied quickly but Loki didn't seem to care exclaiming, "No, but I like this. Your world in the balance and you bargain for one man."_

"_Regimes fall every day," Natasha said matter-of-factly, "I tend not to weep over that. I'm Russian. Or I was."_

"Получение американского гражданства не делает вас менее любой русский," Toni muttered to Natasha enjoying the looks of shock on everyone's faces when she spoke Russian.

"Так же, как говорил русский не сделать вас менее американская," Natasha replied clearly enjoying the shock as well.

"Okay, what are you two saying?" Steve asked getting annoyed that he couldn't understand the conversation.

"I simply told Natasha that because SHIELD made her an American citizen it doesn't mean she's any less Russian," Toni said shrugging, "and she told me that it was just like me still being American although I speak Russian. Nothing ground-breaking."

"_And what are you now?" Loki asked._

"_It's really not that complicated," Natasha said dangerously rising to her feet, "I got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out."_

"_Can you?" Loki asked his tone suggesting he was about to drop a bombshell on Natasha, "Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov's daughter, São Paulo, the hospital fire?"_

_Natasha's face was getting notably tenser as Loki revealed how much he knew about her life but her blank expression didn't falter. "Barton told me everything," Loki continued._

This of course elicited a flinch from Clint that Toni and Natasha were quick to recognise and offer silent support for. Natasha especially knew that the next section of this film would be hard for Clint although Toni had her suspicions. Loki was a manipulative son of a bitch after all.

_Loki's tone took on a sinister hint as his voice level rose to match his words, "your ledger is dripping. It's gushing red and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer."_

"This is Tasha at her best," Toni added with a smirk managing to get a chuckle out of Clint who other than Natasha was the only one who could hear. As that had been her intention Toni was rather pleased with herself.

"_Pathetic!" Loki spat obviously had enough of playing this game._

_His voice switched to a voiceover as Bruce and Toni were shown inspecting a screen together in the lab and Fury and Agent Hill were shown looking at a screen which indicated there was a security breach, "you like and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate to have your own code," here Steve was seen discovering a case containing a Phase 2 weapon, "something that makes up for the horrors. But they are part of you. And they will never go away."_

_Suddenly the screen changed back to the cell as Loki slammed his hand up against the glass causing Natasha to take a step back as his tone turned extremely threatening, "I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work and when he screams, I'll split his skull," Natasha apparently couldn't take this anymore as she turned away, "This is my bargain, you mewling quim." _

Clint had never been so tense for the entire movie and Toni could tell that just the idea of doing anything to Natasha just wasn't worth thinking about in his opinion. As Natasha was being bombarded with questions about the lack of her usual poker face in the scene by Thor and Steve Toni was left to comfort Clint. "Clint you didn't do anything," Toni whispered, "Tasha's fine, you're fine, I'm fine and we all got to kick Loki's ass." Internally she was thinking that she really needed to sort out that Loki themed archery range for Clint in the basement when they took a break. It was almost done after all.

_Natasha sniffled away with her face turned to the door and she breathily said, "You're a monster."_

_Loki simply chuckled and responded, "Oh, no. You brought the monster."_

_Natasha's head snapped up and she turned obviously not having been crying at all, "so, Banner. That's your play."_

"_What?" Loki said confused by the change in topic._

"_Loki means to unleash the Hulk," Natasha said into her comm link making her way to the exit, "Keep Banner in the lab. I'm on my way. Send Thor as well." Before she departed she turned to Loki and got in one last jab in retaliation for his comments, "Thank you for your cooperation."_

"My actions after this aren't going to shed the best light on me," Natasha sighed knowing now that she had made a serious mistake in directly confronting the issue instead of going the Toni route and making Bruce feel more comfortable.

Before any of the Avengers could respond there was a cry from the doorway, "Alright I've seen enough; what the hell is going on?" exclaimed a very confused Piper Potts.

**A/n: Oh did I say Piper wasn't going to come in until the sequel. Whoops! My bad :D Hope you liked it y'all. Bad Russian is bad; it's from an internet translator and probably completely wrong.**


	14. Piper

Chapter 14 – Piper

**A/n: Haha, I shocked everyone with the cliffy. Evil author but I loved your reactions. First part of this chapter is Piper's introduction and then we're back into movie.**

**IMPORTANT NOTE: Yes, Piper and Toni are currently together if that changes it'll probably be to Bruce/Toni but not yet. Just because so many people were asking.**

**Iron Jedi: Your review helped me make up my mind so there will be no Steve/Toni. Leaning between Piper/Toni and Bruce/Toni right now. I would love Thor/Toni or Clint/Toni because there is like none of either of those but there's Clintasha and Thor/Jane in this story. Hmm… Love you too :) And thanks for the compliments**

**paisley15: The question will be answered in the chapter itself. Glad you enjoyed.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Yes, I tricked you all into thinking Piper wouldn't show up :D And yes he will. I always update ASAP and usually the next day, lol**

**MelodyPotterSnape: Glad you liked the twist, see important note for answer :) **

**youwannabekate: To be fair to them they didn't know Piper was back but yes poor Piper. Yes it was believable; sorry I was really worried about that scene; I thought it might be OOC**

**Booklover2526: Prepare for some quick talking from Toni :) **

**3 Avengers: Don't worry he will be; he's still the Pepper character after all. Although the first major comfort scene for Toni will involve Clint. SPOILERS! :) **

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Piper not going away :) I don't even think Tony is genuinely an asshole 24/7 so I'm hoping it's still in character. Plus she's allowed to be clever that way after all she's gone through :D Yeah my Toni is a BAMF so… no regrets **

**Dragones: Thank you and enjoy this one **

**sjc18: Sorry but its updates every day or longer chapters and everyone seems to want the former more. Glad you love it **

**Harm Marie: I'm glad**

**XxXSilverShadowXxX: I'm glad I converted you to liking this type of story and that you're enjoying it :D **

"Piper!" Toni exclaimed, "You're supposed to be in DC right now."

"Yeah well the last meeting of the set was cancelled because several of the important board members got food poisoning and since you leant me the private jet I just got on board and came straight home," Piper explained, "now will someone kindly tell me what the hell is going on because it looked like you were talking about the Battle for New York on screen as if it hadn't happened yet."

"Well…" Steve began.

"And I'd rather it wasn't you because I don't know if that footage was real or not but if it was you said some things to my girlfriend that I'm really angry at and I don't want to punch you because I'll probably break my hand," Piper cut in eliciting a chuckle from Clint and an extremely sheepish look from Steve.

"Our latest fight yielded unexpected results," Natasha explained.

"Oh right," Piper said sarcastically, "that explains everything perfectly. Thanks Natalie… oh right Natasha."

Natasha winced a little at the reminder of her deceiving Piper when she had been in her Natalie Rushman persona. She now knew that Toni hadn't been fooled for one second but she sometimes forgot that there were other people than the mark that had been deceived by her. There were other people involved as well and she knew Piper hadn't taken her deception anywhere near as well as Toni.

Eventually Toni (with the 'assistance' of Thor) managed to explain the whole scenario with Amora's magic to Piper and told him the basics of all he had missed in the movie so far. Toni was not looking forward to Piper seeing further interactions between herself and Steve. They hadn't exactly been nice to each other but in Piper's opinion some of the things Steve would say would be abject cruelty even if Steve didn't know much about Toni's personal traumas.

When Piper finally had the whole story he looked slightly conflicted about staying with the Team to watch the rest much to Toni's delight but it wasn't meant to last as Clint made a comment about how if Piper left he could keep having two ladies all to himself and Piper promptly sat down in the one empty chair left (which was awkwardly the one that Toni had left which was next to Bruce who Piper still didn't like very much) and kept glaring at Clint especially when Toni didn't request a switch. It was only because she didn't want to leave Clint when things got difficult to watch but she knew Piper's thought processes wouldn't be going there.

They sat there for a moment in silence before JARVIS seemed to realise that they were ready to continue watching the movie and he restarted the footage.

_Fury stormed into the lab immediately addressing Toni, "what are you doing Miss Stark?"_

"_Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Toni retorted._

"_You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," Fury snapped clearly warming up for a giant shouting match against Toni but Bruce was the one who replied, "We are. The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile," Bruce indicated a screen across the room that was clearly tracking something._

"You two are unbelievable," Natasha sighed, "the amount of things you do at once."

"What like still for all intents and purposes working intensively for Stark Industries?" Piper butted in and Toni had a feeling this next speech was going to get people stressing about her unnecessarily, "so going to galas, fundraisers, board meetings (when I can talk her into them), press conferences and running the R&D department. Plus being Iron Man so maintaining that suit," here his tone took on a form of distaste, he wasn't fond of Toni risking her life in the suit, "recovering from the battles you get involved in as well as actually fighting them, and on top of that she runs tech for you guys so she renovates the Tower to give you rooms, develops and produces equipment for you as well as things you just feel like having one day, sparring and doing training exercises that you still think she isn't fully capable of, having to sit through Fury's debriefings, running the press for you as well seeing as none of the rest of you has experience with it, damage control, writing up the reports SHIELD insists on, emergency repairs after battle on your gear plus all the stuff Thor, Bruce and Steve break in the tower itself, making new tech for SHIELD, preventing people stealing her tech, attempting to blast the remainder of Stark weaponry from the planet's surface and doing tech upgrades on comm links."

Once he had finished ranting the others all turned to Toni who simply shrugged, "I said I had to work until I literally dropped to get rest right, well it takes a lot to drop me. My brain does about six things at once anyway. Piper makes it sound worse than it actually is."

Steve thought that her explanations sounded plausible but that didn't mean he wasn't going to find any way possible to cut down her work load because it sounded insane.

"_Yeah, then you get your Cube back," Toni said with a slight scoff on the word 'your', "no muss, no fuss," the screen bleeped and she turned back to it, "what is 'Phase 2.'"_

_There was a loud bang as a gun was slammed down on a lab table and Steve spoke angrily, "Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons. Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."_

"I was trying to apologise for not believing you earlier but didn't know how to say it especially with Fury in the room," Steve muttered quietly.

"_Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury said attempting to save the situation, "This does not mean that we're making…"_

_Toni however intervened and scuppered his plan, "I'm sorry, Nick," she spun the screen around which had obviously finished hacking into SHIELD's systems and was displaying schematics, "What were you lying?"_

"_I was wrong, Director," Steve said bitterly, "the world hasn't changed a bit," as he was saying this both Thor and Natasha entered the lab assembling all of the current Avengers. _

"_Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha clearly upset._

Natasha was muttering into her hands things about her actions here being stupid and while Toni agreed she nudged Clint and got him to comfort her because Natasha was her friend no matter what mistakes she had made.

"_You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha asked coldly._

"_I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed," Bruce scoffed._

"_Loki is manipulating you," Natasha warned._

"No, he didn't succeed but as I figured it out I became his back-up plan," Natasha snapped angry at herself. She should have realised that her actions were escalating the situation which didn't help the unease in the room between Toni and Steve.

"_And you've been doing what, exactly?" Bruce asked incredulously._

"_You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha pointed out._

"_Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," Bruce said walking over to the screen Toni had the weapons display on, "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."_

"_Because of him," Fury relented pointing at Thor._

"_Me?" Thor questioned clearly unsure how the conversation had somehow ended up being related to him._

"I can see the logic I guess but just no to nuclear deterrents," Toni sighed.

_Toni turned her eyes narrowing as she obviously came to a conclusion as to why this was related to Thor and didn't like it. Fury began to make a speech, "Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."_

"_My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor said trying to reason with Fury._

"_But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury retorted, "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled," as he said this he gave Toni a specific look._

"Why was Fury looking at you upon saying this Friend S-Toni?" Thor said correcting his slip of the tongue quicker this time.

"Because he knows that I'm smart and that's something they can't match by inventing another super serum," Toni said quietly as if she didn't want to admit to it.

"_Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve asked._

"_Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor accused, "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."_

"_A higher form?" Steve questioned but his comment was ignored in favour of Fury's next, "You forced our hand. We had to come up with something."_

"_A nuclear deterrent," Toni snapped out, "Because that always calms everything right down."_

"_Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark," Fury jibed._

Toni flinched as she heard this comment for the second time. She hated it when people brought up the person she was before Afghanistan. The woman who had everything and yet nothing because she had done her best to atone for her crimes and nobody would let her get over it.

"Now I want to join in on punching Fury," Piper seethed as that remark had been a serious low blow from Fury who knew about Toni's crusade to rid the world of her weapons technology.

"_I'm sure if she still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep…" Steve began._

"Okay, Steve, we got over this but you have to give me one chance to say this," Toni said her tone dangerously close to the one Natasha used when she was pissed off, "yes, I used to be weapons developer. But SO DID MY FATHER! And for some reason he can do no wrong in your eyes while I just kept messing up. My father helped invent the atomic bomb which killed between 180 and 290 thousand people most of whom did nothing to Americans and were completely innocent. So why am I the monster and he's the hero?"

By the end of this speech Toni's voice hadn't risen by a single decibel but the effect was even worse because her tone was cold and low and sent shivers up the team's spines especially Steve who was the target of her anger. Steve couldn't seem to form words and eventually Toni motioned for JARVIS to restart the movie.

"_Wait, wait! Hold on. How is this now about me?" Toni queried._

"_I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve jibed._

Piper's glare which was directed at Steve merely intensified with this comment. The super soldier was in for a rough ride.

"_I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor said._

"_Excuse me," Fury said offended, "did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"_

"If they could have they would have," Bruce said, "they seem to think that's their duty."

"Action taken to prevent an attack does often end up causing one," Clint admitted already planning his resignation speech. He didn't need to be a SHIELD agent anymore now that he was in the Avengers. And it was not like they had money issues seeing as Toni practically made them take the money she offered.

"_You treat your champions with such mistrust," Thor said as an argument between Toni and Steve blossomed in the background._

"_Are you boys really that naïve?" Natasha asked, "SHIELD monitors potential threats."_

"_Captain America's on threat watch," Bruce scoffed._

"_We all are," Natasha confirmed._

"Yes and that is precisely the problem with SHIELD's system," Toni said, "they expect us to work with them and trust them but do not offer the same courtesy to us. And then they wonder why we don't like them very much."

"_Wait, you're on that list?" Toni jibed, "Are you above or below angry bees?"_

"_Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack…" Steve threatened._

"_Threat! Verbal threat. I feel threatened," Toni was heard to say as the sceptre was shown shining brighter as the group argued._

"I wasn't really threatening seriously," Steve said slightly ashamed, "I'd never hit a woman."

"Doesn't excuse the fact that you said it," Piper spat out.

"_Show some respect," Steve snapped._

"_Respect what?" Toni asked as the arguments throughout the room escalated. _

_On a plane flying towards the helicarrier a read out of the sceptre on the central screen on the dashboard. "Transport Six-Six-Bravo," said a female agent over the plane's radio, "please relay confirm codes. I've got you on the computer, but not on the day log. What is your haul? Over."_

"_Arms and ammunition. Over," the pilot replied._

"Half-truth," Toni acknowledged knowing what had been aboard the plane.

_The soldiers in the back of the plane were making final preparations for what they were about to do as Clint picked up his bow and flicked his wrist to make it functional._

"_You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor pointed out._

"_That's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce asked rhetorically, "I mean, what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're… we're a time bomb."_

"Uncomfortable truth," Piper observed, "Fury's going to lash out at that because he won't want to admit to it."

"_You need to step away," Fury snapped even though Bruce was notably the calmest person in the room at that point. _

"_Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Toni asked clearly puzzled._

"_You know damn well why. Back off," Steve said brushing Toni's hand off his shoulder._

"Last time I offered contact that day," Toni snorted leaving Steve feeling even guiltier.

"_I'm starting to want you to make me," Toni snapped clearly at the end of her tether._

"_Yeah. Big woman in a suit of armour," Steve said coldly, "Take that off, what are you?"_

"Even I thought that was cold," Natasha said clearly just as impressed by Steve's actions as Piper was. Piper's fists were clenched but he seemed to be attempting to reconcile the Steve that Toni often talked about now to the one who appeared to be trash talking his girlfriend.

"_Genius, billionaire, socialite, philanthropist," Toni said simply._

"_I know people with none of that worth ten of you," Steve said plainly, "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the person to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."_

Bruce had actually resorted to putting an arm on Piper's arm just in case he launched himself from his chair at Steve as that simply wouldn't end well.

"I got the wrong end of the stick," Steve said bashfully, "okay, Toni rubbed me the wrong way and I know that's not really an excuse for the things that I said and it never will but it's the only one I have. I've already apologised to Toni and she told me to stop doing so only earlier today so I can't do anything else about it."

"_I think I would just cut the wire," Toni told him._

"Even if it's the only thing that's keeping you up," Piper butted in, "I'm still counting your suicidal moves Toni."

"Seriously," Toni said exasperatedly, "I calculate everything and there's always a chance."

"Just not always a big one," Bruce chimed in not making the situation any better for Toni.

"_Always a way out," Steve said with a sarcastic smile._

"I know that's not what she meant," Steve shouted before anyone could tell him off again.

"_You know you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero," Steve said darkly._

"That was the worst one," Toni said matter-of-factly trying to make out that his comments didn't still get to her.

"_A hero? Like you?" Toni said finally snapping completely, "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."_

"I get mean when I get mad," Toni said by way of explanation for her comment.

**A/n: And this is the latest one yet :D Sorry guys**


	15. The Team Begins To Form

Chapter 15 – The Team Begins To Form 

**A/n: Hey y'all! You're not supposed to like Piper that much don't worry because I decided whilst writing it that I couldn't make this a Piper/Toni story so prepare for Bruce/Toni or Clint/Toni probably the former but I may change my mind. Congrats to youwannabekate, the red lines annoyed me enough that you're now in my dictionary as well. **

**HockeyGal09: Glad you enjoyed it.**

** .Uchiha: I'm glad you like Toni because she's just as fun to write. Don't worry your reaction is the one I wanted. Piper is supposed to seem overly protective besides Toni needs a reason to blow up at him because she's blown up at everyone else at some point.**

**youwannabekate: Yeah, it's a really mean game of tennis :) Other than Toni no the others aren't particularly fond of Piper because he was abrasive towards them first. I know right; Bruce would never ever do that. Glad you still like it with the change. Don't worry it's coming up and they're having a private conversation about some of the things they said in this chapter. Hahahahahaha… oh I needed that thanks for the laugh. **

**paisley15: We agree again :) Yes, there is nothing wrong with being overprotective but to Piper's level with someone who obviously doesn't need it that much… he needs to calm down but no promises. He wouldn't be IC otherwise. He tends to think of Toni as someone who can't look after herself despite evidence to the contrary because of her suicidal moves. When I wrote that I thought, yeah that was bad of him to do but he can be redeemed but the character got away from me and I was like yeah he's writing himself to be capable of being bashed. The things is it's weird because I really love Pepper :D I actually preferred the more self-assured movie version but I loved the subtle dig at Natasha that wasn't in the movie. **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Yeah that last chapter wrote itself pretty sure it was nothing to do with me :D Steve in Iron Man is probably going to get angsty**

**Booklover2526: Well cheer away because it'll probably happen. Thank you **

**SkipperStark: Glad you liked it, here you go**

**twilightjazz: Glad you loved it :) **

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Plenty of burns going around; some worse than others lol. I agree with your character assessments. Glad you liked it :D **

Steve didn't want to admit it but he knew that what Toni had said to him back then was true. He was the Avenger that didn't have anything special about himself without help. Bruce may have exposed himself to a lot of gamma radiation and become the Hulk but he was still a genius in his own right. Natasha, Clint & Toni were all without actual superpowers but through training and insane levels of genius they had still become heroes. And Thor was born with his powers; he didn't have to gain them through a mutation. Steve had to be injected with a serum to gain his strength and healing abilities.

Toni noticed Steve's face darkening and determined that the past shown in this film was getting to him. Determined not to let Amora get her way and cause rifts within the team she rose from the couch and said, "Steve, can I have a word outside?"

He nodded absentmindedly and followed her to the elevator which took them down to the next floor to ensure privacy. Even the vents on the R&D floors were monitored because of Clint's tendencies to climb into them. Clint had gotten quite a shock the first time he'd been in there after the update when he tripped a sensor.

"Now tell me why that comment bothered you so much," Toni insisted, "I was in a catty mood after being bombarded with frankly useless insults – I need to teach you how to insult people – and I didn't really mean what I said."

"But it's true," Steve pointed out, "I am the way I am because of the serum that Dr. Erskine used on me."

"And I'm not the slut I used to be because of another doctor who taught me that I should make the most of my gifts," Toni said dismissing this argument, "it may have made you more capable to deal with the villains but it didn't change the reasons why you wanted to do it. You don't like bullies and that's something that didn't come from a bottle okay."

"But…" Steve tried but Toni simply cut him off with a glare causing him to scramble to say, "Okay!"

Clearly satisfied that she had got the answer she had been looking for Toni turned back towards the elevator until Steve called her name and she turned back to face him only for him to hesitate before pulling her into an awkward sort of hug that made her feel extremely uncomfortable. But she put up with it because this was Steve and he didn't have any idea what else to do. She quickly extricated herself from his grasp the first moment she could and accepted his muttered thanks before practically slamming the button down that would take them back to the others.

When they entered the room it was quite obvious that Piper was in an even worse mood that he had been before she left. She wondered momentarily what the others had said but then brushed it off. It wasn't like she had done anything lately to annoy him as she hadn't pulled any supposedly suicidal moves and the others wouldn't be annoying him. Would they?

The moment Toni took her seat next to Clint and Steve returned to his armchair the movie restarted giving the others no chance to ask what had happened which Toni knew JARVIS had done on purpose.

_On the jet approaching the helicarrier Clint opened the rear hatch with his bow in his hand and he loaded an arrow neatly into it before neatly using the wind to carry it into one of the engines where it latched on and began to beep._

_Back in the lab Steve was still staring down Toni and appeared to have been driven past his morals of never hitting a lady, "Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."_

"What was that about never hitting a woman?" Natasha said sarcastically narrowing her eyes.

Steve attempted to focus on the fact that Toni didn't hate him over his comments and didn't dignify this with a reply. Well more like he didn't know how to reply.

_Thor seemed to find this immensely funny as he started to laugh darkly, "You people are so petty and tiny." _

"_Yeah, this is a team," Bruce said sarcastically._

"_Agent Romanoff would you escort Dr Banner back to his…" Fury began trying to soothe things over but only alienating Bruce more._

"_Where? You rented my room," Bruce said angrily._

"_The cell was just in case…" Fury tried to recover once more._

"_In case you needed to kill me," Bruce enunciated carefully, "But you can't. I know, I tried," seeing the looks of shock on most people's faces he continued in a softer tone, "I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?" His eyes were beginning to flicker green as his anger only increased._

_Fury's hand reached for his gun as he got nervous and he flipped down the band that was holding it in place. "Dr. Banner," Steve said having been distracted from his argument with Toni, "put down the sceptre." Bruce somewhere in the middle of his rant had picked up the nearest thing to him that could be used to protect himself and that turned out to be Loki's sceptre._

"That was a little frightening," Piper said and Toni winced. Bruce didn't like it when people referred to him as any form of scary because it reminded him of the period where the Hulk was really just a mindless beast that he couldn't control at all.

_Suddenly the computer tracking the Tesseract found the signal and began to beep loudly, "got it," Toni confirmed as Bruce put down the sceptre. "Sorry, kids," he said sarcastically walking over to the screen, "you don't get to see my party trick after all."_

"_You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked making his way over along with Natasha._

"_If you tell me where it is I've got the fastest air speed," Toni said fully prepared to rush out of the lab._

"_The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it," Thor boomed indignantly._

"_You're not going alone," Steve said darkly attempting to grab a hold of Toni's arm but she automatically slapped it away. He had lost the right to have physical contact when he brushed her off._

"I didn't want to lose the last link to…" Steve said trailing off but Toni knew what he meant. Back then and to a lesser extent now she had been important because she was Steve's link to Howard, to his past.

"_You're gonna stop me," Toni scoffed._

"_Put on the suit, let's find out," Steve reiterated clearly really not wanting Toni to go alone._

"_I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Toni jibed._

"_Put on the suit," Steve insisted._

"I'm glad you two at least worked together in a crisis or this team would have been completely doomed even with a big event," Natasha sighed not understanding how the two had cooperated so well in battle but before that they squabbled like children.

_Bruce removed his glasses in shock as he stared at the Tesseract's location on the grid, "Oh, my god," he said softly. Then all hell broke loose as Clint activated the arrow and there was a huge explosion in the engine it had hit. It burst through the lab and the Team were thrown to the side with Toni and Steve landing beside the door and Natasha and Bruce flying through a glass wall along with other debris._

"And this is where I stop talking okay," Clint said and the others simply acknowledged that including Piper who knew a little about what had happened to insure he hadn't been accidentally insensitive to anyone.

"_Put on the suit," Steve said in a completely different tone as Toni agreed with a quick, "Yeah!" Steve attempted to help Toni get up straight but she shoved his hands away only for him to put them straight back on and push her forward._

Piper scowled at the screen upon seeing this especially since the person doing it had been arguing with his girlfriend only moments before this had happened. Admittedly he knew that Toni had not been at all fond of Steve at this point and so he wasn't as angry as he would have been had it been Bruce but he still wasn't happy.

_Back in the command centre Agents were rushing to grab weapons as screens were checked and double checked to get status updates. Fury recovered from the blast and radioed in, "Hill!"_

"_External detonation," she began, "Number three engine is down. Can they get it running?"_

"_Fire in engine three," another Agent shouted._

"_Talk to me," Hill asked another Agent._

"_Turbine looks mostly intact but it's impossible to get out there to make repairs while we're in the air," he replied._

"_If we lose one more engine, we won't be," Hill said darkly, "somebody's got to get outside and patch that engine."_

"I can predict who that's going to be," Piper muttered.

"_Stark, you copy that?" Fury said upon hearing the situation._

"_I'm on it," Toni confirmed leaving Fury free to issue more orders, "Coulson, initiate defensive lockdown in the detention section then get to the armoury. Romanoff?"_

_Natasha's leg was trapped between two pieces of metal but she could manage radioing in, "We're okay." Bruce however despite what she said seemed to be struggling to keep his temper, "We're okay, right?" she said nervously._

"I'm sorry about this next bit Natasha," Bruce apologised.

"I brought it on myself for the things I said; I wasn't thinking straight or I wouldn't have said them as I would have known they were just going to make things worse," Natasha said brushing it off.

_The jet had now landed on the deck and Clint was leading his team into the main corridors through a ventilation shaft. "Keep that engine down!" he commanded getting an affirmative answer, "Detention, wait for cameras to go dark."_

"_Got it," came the confirmation._

"_Stay close," he told the remaining soldiers as he swiftly drew an arrow. _

Clint's fists clenched and unclenched at periodic intervals as he got more and more angry at himself for not being able to break out of Loki's control. But then again the knowledge that he hadn't been able to fight it made him feel a little better because if he had then he was weak and the deaths were entirely his fault but this way he could believe the others when they blamed the whole fiasco on Loki.

_Toni and Steve were seen running together through corridors that were throwing off sparks, "Engine three," Toni told Steve as she pulled her hair back up, "I'll meet you there." As Steve hurried off she used her handheld remote to open up the Iron Man storage and turn on the suit._

"See what I mean," Natasha said exasperatedly, "they're suddenly working together."

_As Bruce struggled with his temper Natasha spoke to him, "Doctor? Bruce? You got to fight it. This is just what Loki wants."_

"And that's the attitude I should have taken from the beginning," Natasha spoke again.

Bruce and Toni both nodded an affirmative to Natasha's statement confirming that the Hulk out might never have happened had Natasha used that attitude. But it did no good for them to dwell on might-have-beens.

"_We're going to be okay. Listen to me," she continued waving off the workmen who attempted to come in and help to keep them out of possible danger, "We're going to be okay. All right? I swear on my life, I will get you out of this. You will walk away and never ever…"_

"Bad choice of words," Toni muttered quietly.

"_Your life?" Bruce roared the Hulk voice taking over as his skin turned green and his shirt began to rip. Natasha continued to pull desperately at her trapped leg trying to get herself out of the worst possible position she could be in at that particular moment. _

"_Bruce," Natasha said weakly as the change completed._

_As the Hulk roared and smashed at some of the tech systems Natasha finally managed to free her foot and scramble to her feet. As she paused the Hulk looked over his shoulder his eyes narrowing and he launched himself at Natasha as she ran full pelt away from him. Her ascent of the stairs was cut short when the Hulk decided to rip them up so she simply launched herself up to the top access route with her upper body strength. The panel she landed on was immediately ripped out by the Hulk but she had already swung off it down onto the other side. In his cell Loki looked up upon hearing the Hulk roar and smirked dangerously._

Bruce flinched. He didn't like dwelling upon how his control (or lack of it) in this situation had facilitated Loki's escape and the only positive had been that it had eventually brought the entire team together.

"_Bring the carrier about to a 1-8-0, heading south!" Fury shouted as he ran into the control room, "Take us to the water!"_

"_We're flying blind," an Agent pointed out, "Navigation's recalibrating after the engine failure."_

"_Is the sun coming up?" Fury shouted._

"_Yes, sir," he said nervously._

"_Then put it on the left," Fury continued angrily, "Get us over water. One more turbine goes down, and we drop."_

"Common sense," Toni sighed, "why don't most SHIELD agents have it?"

_On the outer hull of the ship an Agent pulled open a door for Steve so he could gain access for which he thanked him. As injured agents were escorted back inside Steve ran to the edge and shouted, "Stark! Stark, I'm here!"_

"_Good," Toni said over her comm unit as she flew towards the worst of the wreckage, "let's see what we've got," within the suit Toni examined the systems with her scanners and said to herself, "I got to get this superconducting coolant system back online before I can access the rotors, work on dislodging the debris."_

"You would know how to fix the helicarrier," Clint said clearly more comfortable talking for a moment while he wasn't on screen.

"Why would Friend Toni know how to fix it specifically?" Thor inquired.

"Because she designed it," Piper interrupted, "now can we get back to watching this thing."

_Toni shoved the system back into the place before directing a comment to Steve, "I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position."_

_Accepting Toni's superior knowledge on this subject Steve simply nodded and launched himself across the gap to where Toni had been pointing and pulled out the panel which was blinking with red lights. As he was doing this Toni cleared some debris and created herself an access route to the rotors._

"_What does it look like in there?" she asked._

"_It seems to run on some form of electricity," Steve said totally baffled by the amount of technology displayed within the mechanism._

"_Well, you're not wrong," Toni said graciously as she continued analysing the data._

This managed to get a general laugh out of the team despite the tenseness of the situation because Toni always had a quip and it was almost ridiculous but she wouldn't be Toni without making quips at inappropriate times and they had long ago learned that Toni didn't need to be changed. And god help those who tried to make her do so.

**A/n: And that's it for this chapter. It's earlier than the last one :) Whoo, would probably have taken two days if I'd typed the whole scene up at once. I only have about two solid hours to type a day after all. Also crying cause I broke 100 reviews. I love you guys so much even those of you who just follow/favourite me.**


	16. Welcome Back Hawkeye

Chapter 16 – Welcome Back Hawkeye

**A/n: After reading your responses here is my solution to the pairing problem. Piper/Toni will break up in this story probably but Toni won't get with anyone else until the sequel which will be Bruce/Toni & Clintasha. But I'll write a parallel sequel with Clint/Toni for those of you who were interested in seeing it :D That way you can choose which one to read and nobody gets upset.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Toni is getting a lot of love from reviewers :D And the action continues and Clint's torment will soon be over.**

**paisley15: I had the same thoughts about Steve but then again my fave character list goes Tony, Bruce, Clint, Natasha, Steve and then Thor so /shrugs. I love them all just some more than others. Hope I solved the conflict with my solution. **

**WayToPretty: I'm glad Piper's supposed to do that or all the comments saying that he does would be disastrous :D You can read the parallel sequel for your Clint/Toni fix once it goes up of course.**

**Guest: You can read the official sequel which will be Bruce/Toni :D I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.**

**3 Avengers: Piper is definitely going to flip at some point but I have no idea when exactly. These characters write themselves.**

**youwannabekate: Yeah, Piper and Toni might have been compatible but he won't control his overprotective tendencies. I'm glad you enjoyed the shout out lol. I'm glad you enjoyed the Steve/Toni scene and I just had to put the hug in. Don't worry there will be conflict over Toni confronting Loki and some edits to that scene because hello Toni hung out with Natasha for ages. She's bound to have been taught a few things.**

**Guest: I'm flattered that my writing is making you want to continue reading this story :D Yeah Clintasha feels coming up :D**

** .Uchiha: Yeah I was watching the film and I was like seriously. You couldn't figure out that yourself; I thought SHIELD agents were meant to be smart. **

**Dragones: I've always been a hardcore Science Boyfriends shipper so I know how you feel about Pepperony. I feel the same way about her character.**

**twilightjazz: Doing my best to do so :D Enjoy**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Random fire engine sounds made me laugh thanks for that. Toni invented the technology behind it but not the quinjet specifically she was too busy with other projects :D**

**MindMaster: Glad you liked that comment; I couldn't resist throwing it in.**

_Natasha scrambled through the confined space attempting to put some distance between herself and the Hulk. Above her she could here heavy footsteps but she decided to continue with her gun held out. Suddenly the Hulk appeared through a gap in the machinery and roared at her causing her to raise her gun._

Toni's eyes narrowed upon seeing this hoping that Natasha wasn't about to shoot Bruce. She knew that bullets didn't have an effect on the Hulk but still it could be dangerous to anyone else around when it ricocheted and shooting someone even with real bullets who just couldn't control a part of themself was akin to murder in her eyes.

_Natasha turned the gun up the way and fired at the pipe above the Hulk's head causing gas to come rushing out and blind the Hulk momentarily. Natasha used the momentary distraction to run for the glass corridor to her left with the Hulk following the minute he recovered smashing through the glass to get at her as equipment stored there collapsed._

Bruce felt a little guilty about the way the other guy was chasing Natasha but he knew that in a way she had brought it on herself because if she hadn't provoked Bruce he wouldn't have gone after her specifically. Still he could see why even now Natasha was the most on edge around the other guy if this was her first experience with him.

_The Hulk had a longer stride than Natasha so he soon caught up and batted her aside into a wall with his arm._

"Sorry," Bruce muttered quietly but he received no reply from Natasha which he took to mean 'don't mention it,' because Natasha had proved on many an occasion that she wasn't good with actual emotions.

_The Hulk was about to smash Natasha as she no longer had a place to run until Thor jumped out of nowhere and shoved him through the metal wall with the pure force of the impact. The pair went rolling into the aircraft bay where a lot of technicians were standing._

"My main focus was on getting him away from Lady Natasha," Thor said solemnly, "I could not pause to think about where we would end up although I should have suspected there would be other people around."

_The technicians fled the minute they appraised the situation as Thor began to push himself up. On the other side of the wall Natasha was still breathing heavily in shock. Once the pair who had gone flying regained their footing they began to circle each other with the Hulk roaring and Thor looking strangely nervous. The Hulk took the first couple of swings but neither of them landed before Thor managed a swift uppercut to the jaw. This made the Hulk even angrier and he tried to smash his fist down on top of Thor but he stopped it neatly with his arm and began to push up with his other hand to stop the weight becoming too much._

"And this is why Thor should always handle strength catastrophes," Toni joked trying to break the tension and succeeding in gaining a couple of nervous smiles so she figured it had worked well enough for the time being.

"_We are not your enemies, Banner. Try to think" Thor tried to reason._

"At least you tried diplomacy," Bruce complimented, "most people head straight for the guns that will do them no good."

_The Hulk was obviously not impressed as he got in a good punch and sent Thor flying backwards and he crashed through a metal box. Outside the sound of repulsors firing was evident as the debris blocking Toni's way to the engine were smashed. _

"I've got a bad feeling about what you're going to do to save the engine," Clint sighed.

"_Okay, the relays are intact," Steve said over the radio clearly having been instructed on how to check them. He pushed the panel back into the ship and asked, "what's our next move?!"_

"_Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump," Toni told him, "I'm going to have to get in there and push."_

"And you just decided that was your one option," Piper said upset.

"Well, yeah it kind of was because I didn't want everyone else on the helicarrier to die, so… that's what I had to do," Toni said firmly not leaving any room for an argument.

"_Well if that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded," Steve said worriedly._

"The whole point of having a suit is that I don't get shredded by things," Toni teased making Steve blush because now he thought about it that was kind of obvious.

"_That stator control unit can reverse the polarity long enough to disengage maglev and that could…" Toni began but Steve interrupted, "Speak English!"_

This managed to get a laugh from Bruce who hadn't been feeling up to being cheerful up to that point. But Steve telling Toni off in a subtle way for talking in her tech speak was too amusing to pass up a laugh.

_Toni rolled her eyes momentarily before explaining in simpler terms, "see that red lever?" Steve looked over to the side he had entered on and spotted it, "It will slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it. Wait for my word."_

_Steve leaped back across the gap so that he was standing in position so he could help Toni. Back on the aircraft deck Thor and the Hulk were still throwing each other around as Thor crashed through yet more boxes. Mjolnir was no longer in his hand but he threw his hand out and a sound could be heard that sounded like a heavy object whizzing through the air._

_The Hulk ran over to him attempting to catch him off guard but Mjolnir landed in Thor's hand just in time and spun round and clobbered the Hulk with it and he went crashing into one of the aeroplanes. In the background it was clear that some of the technicians were yet to leave._

"Why are they still there?" Natasha sighed, "They should know that they have to get out through pure unadulterated common sense if nothing else. It's even in the protocols for working on the helicarrier that if something goes wrong you can't help with or deal with you get the hell out of there."

"Nobody ever said most people working for SHIELD even have common sense," Toni says simply.

_The Hulk growled in anger and ripped the wing off of that particular plane and hurled it at Thor who simply bent over backwards to duck underneath it. It ended up slashing the top off of a jeep as Thor threw Mjolnir at the Hulk who caught it and was dragged backwards by it. When he hit the ground he tried to pull the hammer back off to use it he couldn't get it to budge._

"It only works for those who are worthy of it," Thor explained, "Even I have been unable to lift it at times."

_Whilst he was distracted Thor leaped over him (scoring a hit on the way) and retrieved the hammer and managed to get his arms around the Hulk's neck in an attempt to subdue him. _

_Back in the control room Fury was giving orders, "we need full evac on the lower hangar bay."_

_Agent Hill began to leave the room beckoning to some other Agents to follow her when a device was rolled across the control room. "Grenade!" she shouted just before it exploded._

"Really aiming for every place possible," Toni pointed out, "it's kind of a good strategy."

_A couple of Agents including Hill were thrown around and Fury went up to the door as Loki's soldiers approached drawing his gun. He grabbed hold of the second guy to enter's gun and used it to knock him down before shooting another. Hill took down the last one who almost had the jump on Fury despite the blood that now adorned her face._

"Head injuries bleed a lot," Toni and Bruce said in unison upon seeing Steve's worried look. This did not help Piper's bad mood at all.

"_We've got a perimeter breach," someone said over the PA as Coulson listened, "Hostiles are in SHIELD gear. Call-outs at every junction."_

_Coulson opened the door to the armoury with the fingerprint and iris scanners. Whilst this was happening Thor and The Hulk smashed through the floor of yet another room and while Thor was dazed The Hulk pulled him up off the ground. "We have the Hulk and Thor on Research Level 4, Levels 2 and 3 are dark," an Agent informed Fury as he shot at the hostiles attempting to gain entrance to the control room._

"Should be keeping an eye on all access points to the room no matter how small," Natasha muttered seeing as she had spotted a couple of blind spots which is no doubt what Clint had utilised to shut down engine 1.

"_Sir, the Hulk will tear this place apart," Agent Hill shouted._

"_Get his attention," Fury offered by way of a solution._

"_Escort 6-0, proceed to Wishbone and engage hostile," Agent Hill said over her comm link, "Don't get too close."_

"Sometimes I think it must take longer for trainees to learn all the codes they need to use in everyday situations than it does for them to learn all the stuff they actually need to be spies, soldiers, etc…" Toni said upon hearing the spy jargon.

"_Copy," the pilot said as he flew in closer. He opened his visor and Thor and the Hulk were seen fighting through the window he was opposite. "Target acquired," he informed the listening body. Inside Thor was thrown right to the back of the lab as the Hulk began to storm forward, "target engaged," the pilot informed before firing the on-board machine gun at the Hulk through the glass. He wasn't damaged by this attack but it certainly got his attention._

"It was a plan that worked out I guess," Bruce said while some people looked appalled that they'd actually fired on him and put the poor pilot in danger.

_Thor quickly jumped for cover behind a lab bench where Mjolnir was lying as The Hulk roared angrily at the plane. Then he launched himself out at the plane and landed neatly on top as the pilot said panicked, "target angry, target angry!"_

This elicited a few nervous chuckles because honestly what had the pilot expected the reaction of the Hulk would be to being shot at by a plane that he knew he could easily take down. This was just further proof that SHIELD didn't look for intelligence when hiring and if their Agents had it that was great but it wasn't the most important thing. God only knows what that actually was.

_The Hulk began ripping out parts of the plane's electrics obviously trying to stop it from shooting. He completely ripped one of the wings off in this endeavour and the plane was spiralling downwards rapidly. The pilot pulled the jettison for his seat but the Hulk grabbed hold of it and waved the pilot (seat and all) around in the air. Then he hurled him away giving him enough time to engage his parachute as the Hulk flew through the sky away from the helicarrier._

"Like I said," Bruce reiterated, "it wasn't sophisticated but you can't deny it worked out."

_Toni used the laser in the wrist of the Iron Man suit to cut through the largest piece of debris that was trapped before jumping on it causing it to dislodge. She instantly engaged the flight stabilisers in her feet so she didn't fall with it. From where Steve was standing he could see some of the hostiles approaching. The ones who had been ordered by Clint to keep Engine 3 down._

_As they attempted to throw a grenade to further damage the systems on that side Steve launched himself at it and successfully managed to bat it away so it exploded in mid-air before making a landing on the other side of the gap._

"Nifty," Clint said quietly admiring the timing it took to pull that off. It wasn't just due to superpowers although they helped Steve to make the jump itself.

_He dropped down on top of one of the soldiers and then quickly took out another with a few well-placed kicks. When he grabbed the last one he ended up throwing him over his shoulder and he fell down the gap screaming. _

_Another attempted to shoot Steve from his position at the door but Steve launched a piece of debris in his direction giving him enough time to get out of the direct line of fire. He had grabbed a machine gun on the way from one of the unconscious soldiers and he began to fire back as he backed up towards the red lever._

"I'm beginning to see what the hold-up was," Toni admitted. She hadn't been very happy that he hadn't listened and stayed next to the lever but she guessed he had a good reason.

_Fury shot down another soldier and muttered, "they are not getting through here, so what the hell…" trying to figure out their motives for attacking the most populated area they could find._

_Before he could finish Clint fired an explosive arrow into their midst making them all dive or be thrown to the ground once more. Then he hit the panel dead on with his second arrow before Fury noticed him and attempted to fire up at him. The arrow expanded and shoved pins into the plugs on the dashboard which began to interfere with the screens._

"Why the hell is it even possible to do that anyway?" Clint shouted at Toni angry that it was possible for him to cause such damage.

"I designed it but I didn't make it," Toni pointed out, "SHIELD mechanics put in some rubbish defence mechanisms that weren't on the original plans. Being able to shut down the systems wasn't on my plans but some people thought they could prove they knew better than me."

"Idiots," Natasha laughed despite the tense situation, "it's almost impossible to prove Toni Stark wrong. I think it's happened once with Piper."

"I set that up to find someone trustworthy," Toni admitted.

"Wait so you didn't really make a math mistake," Piper asked incredulously.

"My math is always right," Toni sighed, "you've worked with me for how long now?"

"_Engine 1 is now in shut-down," someone said over the PA. The helicarrier began to tilt sending Agents sliding as Engine 3 continued to pour out smoke. The whole helicarrier began to sink as an Agent said panicked, "we are in an uncontrolled descent."_

"_Sir, we've lost all power in engine one," another said over the comm link._

"_It's Barton. He took out our systems. He's headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy?" Fury relayed as Natasha was shown still sitting where the Hulk and Thor had left her clearly at least slightly traumatised._

Bruce gave Natasha a sideways apologetic look. He knew it took a lot to bother an Agent of SHIELD and Natasha in particular and it looked like he had truly freaked her out which wasn't a natural or good look on the Russian.

_Natasha sighed and reached for her own comm link, "this is Agent Romanoff. I copy."_

_Toni flew neatly up to one of the rotors in Engine 3 and began to push against it. "Stark, we're losing altitude," Fury informed her over the comm link._

"As if she wouldn't have already noticed," Piper scoffed.

"_Yeah, I noticed," Toni replied snarkily. As she put more power into her push the rotor began to grate against the damaged metal at the edge but it was beginning to pick up speed. Steve was still having to fire on enemy soldiers who kept on coming at him. One of the shots made Steve have to step back and he was now on unstable material which slipped away causing him to let go of the gun and have to hang on to a cable to prevent himself plunging down faster than the helicarrier already was._

"Yeah, definitely forgive you," Toni said simply now seeing why she had gotten beaten up by the rotors.

_Thor ran into the detention level as the door to Loki's cell began to open. "No!" he cried when he saw this and he charged ahead without thinking until he reached Loki but he simply phased half out of existence and Thor ran straight through him into the cell._

"_Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki sighed seemingly disappointed that it had been so easy._

"That must be a little embarrassing," Natasha muttered seeing as Loki had obviously pulled the same trick on Thor several times for different reasons.

_Clint was making his way down an access route unimpeded until he spun around to see Natasha behind him. He quickly fired off an arrow but it went straight over her shoulder as she lunged at him with a knife. Clint used his bow itself to try and hit Natasha whilst Natasha used her leg to get a kick in before diving down beneath the access route._

Neither Clint nor Natasha was at all comfortable watching this. Clint because he never wanted to do something to hurt Natasha like that and Natasha because she had to keep telling herself that Clint wasn't in his right mind at the time and seeing it again now it made it look so ruthless.

_The two leapt from access route to access route with Clint occasionally getting the opportunity to fire off an arrow but Natasha kept swinging around and getting in good kicks so none of the arrows hit their mark. Things got even more up close and personal when Natasha managed to grab hold of Clint's bow string and he used the momentum from it to get her to hit herself in the face._

"Ooh, nice move," Toni muttered softly to Clint. She kept her grip on his arm steady knowing how difficult he was finding it watching this part. Luckily this was when his enchantment ended.

_But Natasha managed to hit him back with the bow and pull it from his hands ridding him of at least one weapon. Clint quickly drew a knife from his boot as a back-up._

_Back in the detention level Thor slammed Mjolnir up against the glass wall of the cell and the clamps holding onto it released just a little. _

"I momentarily forgot the design that Director Fury mentioned for the cell in my anger," Thor admitted, "it is a fault of mine that I am working to correct."

_Loki smiled and laughed a little before making his way over to the control panel saying, "the humans think us immortal. Should we test that?"_

_The guard who had let Loki out dropped revealing Coulson standing there holding a weapon. "Move away please," he said calmly. Loki took a single step back as Coulson moved the weapon up slightly, "you like this?" he continued, "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does."_

"Phil was never the best with actual complicated weapons," Toni sighed sadly.

_He clicked a switch that began to power up the device, "do you wanna find out?!" he quipped. But his moment of glory was short lived for moments afterwards he cried out in pain as Loki shoved a blade into his back._

Clint was racked by guilt because of this. If he hadn't helped with Loki's plan then Coulson wouldn't have died. There was no way he would have found somebody else with the same capabilities. Yet, he had managed to get taken over because he couldn't reach for a gun as fast as he could for an arrow for his bow. He just didn't particularly like using guns.

_Thor shouted, "No!" once more upset to see his brother actually kill a good man and prove himself a kind of monster. Phil dropped to the floor as the Loki double at the control panel faded away. Phil breathed unevenly as the real Loki made his way over to the control panel and hit the red button causing the cell to drop at a horrific pace._

_Back with Clint and Natasha their fight was still raging on with both keeping up with each other blow for blow. Natasha managed to get a hold of Clint's arm and she twisted it so that Clint cried out in pain but he managed to pull himself free and swipe at Natasha with his knife._

Natasha could almost feel the phantom blade swiping near to her throat as she watched the scene. She knew that the knife Clint carried had come awfully close to her throat in several occasions and she really had been sure that Loki would come through on his promise and Clint would kill her and then realise what he had done. She wouldn't wish that torture on him and she hadn't thought that was her time to die if there ever was a specific time that should happen. She didn't if she'd accept it even if she knew it were truly her time. Nobody really wanted to die.

_As Natasha prepared another move Clint got the jump on her as he tangled their arms together leaving the knife only an inch away from her throat. But Natasha was prepared to fight dirty and she got her teeth into Clint's arm causing him to shout in pain._

"Here's a lesson for you," Toni said, "if there's a fight between a man and a woman of equal capabilities…"

"…the woman will win," Natasha finished for her.

"Why?" Bruce said slightly unnerved by how in sync the pair was. It didn't help that they responded in unison, "We're not afraid to fight dirty."

_As soon as Clint was distracted Natasha neatly flipped over his arm and flung him into the rail with his head hitting it with a clanging sound. He groaned as he tried and failed to use the railing to crawl back to his feet. "Natasha?" he asked confused as he looked up but she still wasn't convinced so she punched him hard in the head one more time._

"Ouch," Toni winced sympathetically, "Natasha hits hard right?!"

"How would you know that?" Clint asked but Toni resolutely refused to answer the question.

**A/n: Okay, it's kind of later than usual but it broke 4,000 words so /shrugs/ I made up for it.**


	17. Something To Avenge

Chapter 17 – Something To Avenge

**A/n: I'm glad that y'all enjoyed the last chapter because it was the longest yet :D Here's hoping you like this one just as much.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I guess you'll just have to wait and see ;) I know still having trouble deciding whether he's really dead or not**

**paisley15: You obviously type yes a lot on it :D You're welcome; it just seemed like the best solution when the opinion was so clearly split. And I'm extremely flattered that you think so highly of me. It's usually like 2-3am when I update here :D The parallel will begin at the same time as the sequel probably alternating between days on which one I update. I know I found the whole shutting down thing completely idiotic so I had to point it out.**

**favfan: That's an idea; I'll consider it :)**

**Maeleana: Yeah, I've seen a lot that leave Pepper as is but I just wanted to do something different. Glad you're enjoying**

**Booklover2526: Don't worry you won't have to put up with him when they break up because he'll stop watching the movies. Yay for Clint he's my third favourite Avenger after Tony & Bruce**

**Kit Kat: I've considered your suggestion and I think I'll do a oneshot series on the side with Thor/Toni as well but I don't know how often it will be updated. Would that be okay for you?**

**Dragones: I'm excited to be writing the sequel but we still have four movies after this one to get through before that can happen :D **

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Glad it was what you wanted :D Yeah in the movie I was a bit like NOOO! Stop messing with my feels mean screenwriters. I prefer to be the one that's scary; all the boys I know are scared of me**

**skywright: I've tried to make this such that they all have understandable flaws so I'm glad you think that Piper's is understandable.**

**kittymitten: Glad you enjoyed it**

_The cell containing Thor twisted and turned as it fell as the god was tossed around inside it. It drew nearer and nearer to the ground as Thor desperately tried to get some leverage so he could bust out. Eventually he got his feet up against one of the glass walls and he pushed himself off it and smashed through the opposite one just before the cell hit the ground and was smashed to smithereens._

"Would you have died had it hit the ground with you in it?" Toni asked curiously.

"Only if something had gotten into my heart or my brain; the impact wouldn't have done it alone. But with the debris that was going to be around there was still a risk which was why I chose to blast my way out," Thor answered.

_Thor crash landed into the field nearby with Mjolnir flying from his hand and landing away from him. Back on the helicarrier Loki looked down at the gap in the floor with satisfaction clearly thinking that the fall had rid him of his brother at least until he was done taking over._

_As he began to walk away Coulson spoke, "you're going to lose."_

"Defiant to the last," Natasha said with a hint of affection entering her tone. Phil had been her very first handler and she did miss him although it might not always seem like it.

_Loki turned back obviously not having expected Coulson to still be capable of speech. "Am I?" he said incredulously._

"_It's in your nature," Coulson told him defiantly._

"_Hmm," Loki considered, "Your heroes are scattered. Your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?"_

"_You lack conviction," Coulson jibed._

"Damn," Toni muttered, "maybe he did spend enough time around me to pick up some good jibes. I thought he just used them around me."

"_I don't think I'm…" Loki started clearly growing angry but he was cut off by the gun which remained on Coulson's lap being fired. A yellow beam of energy slammed into him and knocked him backwards through the wall surrounded by smoke. _

"_So, that's what it does," Coulson said._

Normally this would have elicited at least a chuckle from several people in the room but it was too sombre a moment for that as Coulson was dead and that was nothing to laugh about.

_Fury dismissed any other information on one of his screens and brought up an altimeter which showed the figures descending at a rapid rate. "All hands to crash stations immediately," came the call over the PA. _

_Outside the gold blur which was Toni spun around inside Engine 3 and Steve was shown still hanging onto the cable to stop himself plummeting. On the main deck anything left up there was skidding around and sending up sparks. Within Engine 3 Toni was still putting all her strength into kick-starting it. Toni shouted in pain as she kept pushing it obviously willing to work through it._

Piper's eyes darkened even more although the others before that moment wouldn't have thought such a thing possible. The sight of Toni in pain seemed to have driven him to the very edge and they knew that if anything else happened he was going to blow. Steve and Toni knew what was coming up and Steve had a feeling the anger would be directed at him.

_Finally the engine got up to speed and the helicarrier began to move forwards rather than downwards. "Cap, hit the lever," Toni instructed._

"_I need a minute here," Steve said now able to clamber up the cable without it being more dangerous than just hanging on._

"_Lever," Toni insisted, "now!"_

"It would have been better if you had told Toni what was happening Steve then she might have left you alone to do it and you wouldn't have been distracted from the task at hand," Clint pointed out and Steve blushed slightly as he realised that Clint was right. That was what the comm link was for after all.

_Steve managed to pull himself back up onto solid ground and crawled forward slowly but the gunman were still there and firing on him. As this happened Toni was able to let go of the rotors as they began to turn themselves but in the absence of the lever being pulled she was flattened up against the one behind and was eventually pulled under and began to be beaten up quite severely by the rotors._

"It might be funny if it wasn't actually quite serious," Natasha said confusing several people but Toni got what she was saying. The footage looked quite amusing but something like that would have killed her easily if the armour had taken any substantial damage.

Piper had finally had enough, "what the hell? You never told me about this bit Toni. And what were you all thinking letting her do that?"

"They were thinking I was the only one who can fly," Toni said blankly wondering what had gotten into Piper lately. He had been acting strangely possessive ever since she had told him about the idea of the Avengers Initiative.

_But moments later Steve pulled the lever down and it slowed the rotors meaning Toni could fall through one of the holes and steady the suit as the flight repulsors faltered for a second. The minute she was stable she zoomed towards Steve and take down the guy who had been shooting at him. The moment she rolled off of him the eyes of the suit went dark._

"Thank you for that," Steve said gratefully, "I don't think I ever officially said it after the shock of Coulson."

_Back on the outer deck a quinjet took off with Loki shown to be aboard as the rear hatch closed over. Obviously some of the soldiers that had been brought had survived or he had simply taken over some more to fly the thing._

"We weren't missing anyone else that we weren't missing already as far as I know," Natasha informed the others making them sigh in relief. Being taken over by Loki was by all accounts a horrible experience.

_Fury hurried to the detention area where he found Coulson on the floor clearly at least slightly upset by this. _

"_Sorry, boss," Coulson apologised, "the god rabbited."_

"_Just stay awake," Fury told him apparently more concerned for Coulson's condition at that moment than Loki who was already long gone, "eyes on me."_

"At least Director Fury proved that he cares a little," Thor said trying to think of anything to say to break the tension. It didn't work but it was good of him to attempt it at least.

"_No, I'm clocking out here," Coulson told him._

"_Not an option," Fury informed him sternly._

Toni at this point had to hold back tears. She was sure that Natasha and Clint were suppressing them too but they arguably had more practice concealing their emotions than she did. Although maybe not considering all the time she spent concealing her true emotions at press conferences and around people she didn't particularly like. She'd gotten involved in business at the age of eight due to her father after all.

"_It's okay, boss," Coulson reassured haltingly, "This was never gonna work if they didn't have something… to…" He became incapable of speech before he could finish and his eyes flickered shut. Fury stood slowly as the medical team came in._

_Agent Hill was being treated for her head wound when the message came through from Fury, "Agent Coulson is down," and she pushed him away abruptly._

"_A medical team is on its way to your location," was heard as two SHIELD agents carried Clint away from Natasha._

"_They're here," Fury responded as Steve and Toni were seen on the exterior of the helicarrier Toni having removed her mask, "they called it."_

Here JARVIS paused the movie for about a minute for everyone to regain their fragile composure (well except for Piper) and breathe easier then he restarted the footage.

_Back in the control room only Steve and a de-suited Toni were sitting at the table with Toni resolutely avoiding everyone's gaze._

"_These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," Fury began throwing Coulson's Captain America trading cards onto the table which were now covered in blood, "I guess he never did get you to sign them."_

"I still don't get why he was directing his comments at me," Steve said puzzled, "he was much closer to Toni as I barely knew him. I mean I liked him and all but all I knew was that he was a fan."

"Yeah, well," Toni said haltingly, "Fury's not the smartest person emotionally I guess. He tends to think that if you don't show your emotions you don't have any. So, he dismisses me."

_Steve picked up one of the blood stained cards as Fury continued, "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor… I got nothing for you," throughout this Toni resolutely refused to look up as if looking at anyone would break her mask, "I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming."_

"Yes, he did," Toni said softly, "but not like that."

"_Yes," Fury said beginning to walk around the table, "we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though because I was playing something even riskier," he paused as if considering whether to continue or not, "there was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative."_

_Toni looked up at the mention without turning to face the other two whilst Steve gave her a quick, calculating look._

"I just…" Steve said attempting to explain.

"Don't even bother Steve," Toni said quietly, "It's not worth it."

_Fury was now directly behind Toni as he spoke, "the idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could," he directed his next comment straight to Toni, "Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes."_

_The minute the word heroes passed Fury's lips Toni practically launched herself from her chair and left the room._

"I didn't understand why it affected you so much back then but I get it now," Steve informed Toni.

"_Well, it's an old-fashioned notion," Fury said looking in the direction that Toni had disappeared in._

_Back on the ground Thor walked through the grass to find Mjolnir where it had collided with the field and reached out his hand but it did not instantly fly into his hand. _

"My faith wavered," Thor said sadly. It had been like his first encounter with Mjolnir after being exiled all over again.

"_You fell out of the sky," a man said in a voiceover._

_The scene changed to show Bruce having changed back from being the Hulk lying in a gigantic pile of rubble. He sat up slowly clearly in pain and turned to see a security guard who had been the one talking to him. He groaned and rubbed his eyes as if he had a splitting migraine._

"It usually hurts to change back if I didn't intend to let him out," Bruce informed them, "plus I have to deal with the missing memories that I've recently discovered thanks to Toni's theories were just buried because I was repressing him."

_His first panicked question was, "did I hurt anybody?"_

"_There's nobody around here to get hurt," the security guard informed him casually, "you did scare the hell out of some pigeons though."_

"Relieving," Clint said matter-of-factly. Unfortunately when he had woken up he knew he had hurt some people. Even people he had known.

"_Lucky," Bruce said simply but the security guard wasn't having any of that, "Or just good aim. You were awake when you fell."_

"I like him," Toni said with a smile, "he's not freaking out but he's not taking any of your modesty. I will tell you for as long as I have to. The Other Guy has his own motivations and intentionally hurting innocents isn't one of them."

Bruce gave her a smile in appreciation but this did not help the situation with Piper at all. Toni was suddenly uncomfortable that the pair was sitting on the same seat but there wasn't much she could do about it as everywhere was full.

"_You saw?" Bruce questioned._

"_The whole thing," the security guard confirmed, "Right through the ceiling. Big and green and buck-ass nude."_

Clint found this comment funnier than he probably should have done but neither girl had the heart to hit him because he hadn't been laughing like that much. At least now there was no more Loki controlling him on film which could demoralise him further.

"_Here," he continued throwing some clothes for Bruce into the crater, "I didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular-size feller."_

"_Thank you," Bruce said quickly getting dressed._

"_Are you an alien?" the security guard asked curiously._

"That's ironic considering what's about to happen," Steve muttered.

"_What?" Bruce asked._

"_From outer space, an alien," he reiterated._

"_No," Bruce informed him quietly obviously waiting for the cries of monster that he predicted would come but he simply replied softly, "well, then, son, you've got a condition."_

_Back on the helicarrier Clint struggled with the restraints that attached him to the chair as he shook his head as if attempting to clear it. He screwed up his eyes in pain causing Natasha to tell him, "Clint. You're going to be alright."_

"_You know that?" Clint said bitingly, "Is that what you know?" As Natasha rose he leaned back clearly uncomfortable sighing, "I've got no window. I have to flush him out."_

"Didn't know he was completely gone yet," Clint told them.

"_You got to level out. It's going to take time," Natasha informed him._

"_You don't understand," Clint attempted to explain, "have you ever someone take your brain and play?"_

Toni stiffened at the mention because that was what her father used to do to her in a way and it was a bit of a touchy subject. Bruce, Clint & Natasha had all obviously noticed her stiffen but decided to tactfully not mention it in front of the others. Piper already knew a little of what Howard had done to Toni.

"_Pull you out and stuff something else in?" he continued, "Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"_

"Yes," came the chorus from all of the other Avengers who each gave the others a small smile before returning to watching the movie. It was nice to know that they at least had that in common. Most of them had even more on top of that. This wasn't going the way Amora had planned at all.

"_You know that I do," Natasha said simply._

_Clint breathed deeply for a few seconds before querying, "Why am I back? How did you get him out?"_

"_Cognitive recalibration," she said formally, "I hit you really hard on the head."_

"_Thanks," Clint said as she sat down next to him._

"And that's the only time anyone well ever thank you for beating them up Natasha so remember that," Clint joked which earned him a whack to the back of the head but also a smile.

"_Natasha…" he said as she freed him from the restraints, "How many agents did I…?" But Natasha wasn't going to let him dwell on it, "Don't. Don't do that to yourself, Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic, and nothing we were ever trained for."_

"She makes a good point there," Steve said, "you can't dwell on things that were beyond your control."

"_Loki, did he get away?" Clint asked bitterly._

"_Yeah," Natasha confirmed, "I don't suppose you know where."_

_Clint shook his head regretfully, "I didn't need to know. I didn't ask," with that he swung his legs off the bed as Natasha walked towards the door, "he's going to make his play soon, though. Today."_

"That is useful information Friend Barton," Thor complimented but Clint just shrugged it off. The information wasn't worth the price which included Coulson's death.

"_We got to stop him," Natasha said sharply._

"_Yeah? Who's 'we'?" Clint asked._

"_I don't know," Natasha replied, "whoever's left."_

"_Well," Clint said after thinking for a moment, "if I put an arrow through Loki's eye socket, I would sleep better, I suppose."_

"If he hadn't caught the arrow that would have happened," Clint said almost sulkily, "but it did its job anyway so I can't complain too much."

"_Now you sound like you," Natasha said relieved._

"_But you don't," Clint said calling Natasha out on her unusual behaviour, "You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"_

"_He didn't. I just…" Natasha said haltingly._

"_Natasha," Clint said breathily almost in a whisper._

"_I've been compromised," she admitted grudgingly, "I got red in my ledger. I would like to wipe it out."_

"I don't fight for that nowadays. Everyone has red in their ledger I guess and if I haven't made up for it by now then I never will," Natasha said when Steve shot her a worried look.

Toni knew what that felt like. She didn't believe that she could ever erase all the red that she had done. She didn't even think that it worked like that but she hoped she could balance out by doing as much good as she could now she had seen the light. That was what Piper hadn't quite understood about her desire to remain Iron Man after her escape from Afghanistan.

_Toni stood overlooking the place where the cell had once been as Steve walked into the room. "Was he married?" he asked clearly guessing that Toni was closer to Coulson than she let on._

"I knew she were at least more than distant acquaintances. I didn't know how close," Steve admitted.

"_No. There was a cellist in Portland named Jenna but SHIELD hadn't given him permission to propose," Toni told him._

"And I should have caught on there," Steve realised, "but I was more distracted by the fact that a government agency was forbidding someone to get married to someone they were in love with."

The others who had been about to protest about his insensitivity and obliviousness accepted this explanation for SHIELD had made a huge impact on Steve's faith in authority and they all knew it.

"_I'm sorry," Steve said, "he seemed like a good man."_

"_He was but he was also an idiot," Toni said quickly wiping away a tear that Steve hadn't noticed before turning to face him. _

"_Why? For believing?" Steve asked stiffly._

"That's what you were apologising for earlier," Clint realised.

"Yeah," Steve confirmed, "I thought she was just criticising his actions instead of wishing he hadn't been noble for other reasons."

"_For taking on Loki alone," Toni corrected._

"_He was doing his job," Steve said confused._

"_He was out of his league. He should have waited, he should have…" Toni reiterated trying not to show she was upset._

"_Sometimes there isn't a way out, Toni," Steve said kindly._

"Yeah, that's what I was trying to tell myself," Toni said weakly, "wasn't really working."

"_Right, I've heard that before," she said nonchalantly as she walked past Steve._

"_Is this the first time you lost a soldier?" Steve asked._

"_We are not soldiers," Toni snapped making an abrupt about face._

Steve still didn't know why that subject was so touchy for her but he wasn't sure he wanted to bring it up and he knew none of the others would be keen to either. He was pretty sure Piper already knew at least part of the story though.

"_I'm not marching to Fury's fife," Toni said trying to regain composure._

"_Neither am I," Steve said, "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does But right now, we got to put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list…"_

_But Toni was only half listening as she had caught sight of Phil's bloodstain on the wall nearby._

Clint and Natasha both flinched. Why hadn't they cleaned that up already? It just made things harder for those who knew Coulson to cope with his death!

"_He made it personal," Toni cut in quickly._

"_That's not the point," Steve tried but Toni was in her own world now analysing things, "That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. But why?"_

"I should have known it was you who figured out where Loki would be attacking," Natasha sighed wondering why she had thought it had been Steve but she guessed she had thought that the two of them still weren't speaking in any way amicably.

"_To tear us apart," Steve pointed out confused as to why this was an issue._

"_Yeah, divide and conquer is great," Toni said coming to a realisation, "but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us; he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." Toni hurried past Steve again as Steve realised she was right, "right, I caught his act in Stuttgart."_

"_Yeah, that was just previews. This is opening night," Toni confirmed, "And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…"_

"So if I hadn't insisted on the name thing we wouldn't have had the attack here," Piper said incredulously.

"Well he might have chosen here anyway but who knows with Loki," Toni said shrugging it off. No use dwelling on might-have-beens.

_Steve gave Toni a significant look as she realised what she had said and cursed, "Son of a bitch," before running from the room._

"You would curse at a time like that I guess," Bruce said acknowledging that it was Toni's way of dealing with her anger semi-constructively which he was an expert on by now.

**A/n: Broke 4K again! Yay for action chapters :D **


	18. The Lies Are Ending

Chapter 18 – The Lies Are Ending

**A/n: Hello all; I hope you enjoy this chapter as I know you're all loving the action chapters. Love y'all!**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I know right; I get the same image and it never fails to make me laugh. Clint's going to freak out trust me.**

**Ashtree1165: Prepared for the booting of Piper because he's quite hard to write and I always forget that he's there and occasionally needs dialogue. I'm glad you think I'm portraying Toni well**

**Booklover2526: Did I ever actually confirm that? Hmm… wait and see. I still do cry cause it's Phil**

**paisley15: I'm so looking forward to writing that scene. The changes I'm going to make are purely because Toni is a BAMF; no regrets! That's one of my favourite moments to. The first time I saw it I was like OMG they're working together. I love the brief Tony/Clint interaction during the battle as well as Clint's other scenes but that one especially. Nope, I noticed it too. He relies on strength a lot more than the others.**

**Kit Kat: Then I'll do it for you :) I keep giving myself more projects when I haven't even finished this one /lol/**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: All action chapters in this story are like dedicated to you because of your amazing reviews after them :D Love ya**

**Dragones: As you wish :) Loving how long that more was :D**

**Maeleana: I'm glad the descriptive passages are good. **

_The scene changed to show Erik Selvig putting the final touches to the portal opener containing the Tesseract on the roof of Stark Tower. Meanwhile the door to Clint's room opened as Steve walked in. "Time to go," he told Natasha who was the only one in the main room._

"_Go where?" She asked curiously._

"_I'll tell you on the way," Steve told her._

"I didn't want SHIELD to know where we were going until it was too late to stop us helping," Steve said simply, "I knew they could overhear what we were saying and I also knew that while Fury was on board with the Avengers idea there was no way that everyone working there was. The attempt to bomb Manhattan was just the end product of that distrust."

"_Can you fly one of those jets?" he asked knowing he couldn't._

"You could have asked Toni, she can fly them," Natasha pointed out.

"Yeah but that's because the basic idea and design were both mine and so I made it so it would be controllable for me," Toni replied, "plus I was getting there under my own steam anyway so if nobody else could have I would have been a last resort in that capacity."

"_I can," Clint said emerging from the bathroom._

_Steve gave him a calculating look before Natasha indicated that she believed that Clint was truly back and then he began to speak, "You got a suit?"_

"Just wanted to make sure," Steve muttered but Clint just waved off his apology. If it had been the other way around Clint would have been a hell of a lot worse than just exchanging signals with Natasha in trying to find out if he was back or not.

"_Yeah," Clint said calmly._

"_Then suit up," he said before leaving the room._

"You keep stealing my lines Cap," Toni teased, "find some of your own."

_Back on the ground Thor hesitated before leaning down slowly to grab hold of Mjolnir. Even in the half-light he was under it was clear that he was relieved when he managed to raise the hammer._

"It was a great relief that I had not become unworthy once more," Thor confirmed.

_On the helicarrier the team began to assemble their weapons. Cap pulled up his shield which had been repaired from the damage done in Stuttgart._

"You're welcome," Toni said as she had been the one who had repaired it before she had come into the room with Coulson for the briefing.

_Clint neatly clipped his quiver of arrows onto his back as Natasha powered up her Widow's Bite in advance. Toni was working at a bench with SHIELD's insufficient tools to make as many repairs to the suit as she could. Sparks flew from the helmet as the eye sockets lit up with power once more._

"It's hard to repair something that complex in a place which I refuse to give my more sophisticated tech in case they end up misusing it which they probably would on at least some occasions," Toni sighed. The suit hadn't really been working to a degree she would have liked even before the fight and having to change to the Mark VII.

_Thor raised Mjolnir above his head and lightning began streaming from the top of it right up to the heavens. This caused a vortex of dust lingering in the air from the crash to form and spiral at the speed of a hurricane. _

_Toni powered up the Iron Man suit and the holographic display flickered into life. Steve walked straight through the sea of Agents scrambling about making repairs with Clint and Natasha right behind him. As the three boarded a quinjet the Agent aboard said, "Hey, you guys aren't authorised to be in here."_

"You'd think SHIELD agents would be smart enough to know not to attempt to mess with two of SHIELD's best operatives plus Captain America but no," Bruce piped up.

"That would imply that they have common sense and they've already more than proved that they don't," Toni laughed, "they change my designs in an attempt to look superior to me although they know I have a genius level IQ, they can't even navigate towards a massive body of water judging on a non-complicated direction without a navigation system. Not having common sense appears to be a quality that they overlooked when hiring Natasha, Phil & Clint (possibly Hill) but nobody else."

"_Son, just don't," Steve said in a cautionary tone._

"You never sounded more old-fashioned," Clint joked and it was true. It was probably one of the most old-fashioned things he had ever said around any member of the Avengers.

_The scene changed to show Fury shuffling Coulson's cards within his hands whilst standing in the control room. "Sir," Agent Hill said as she approached Fury. _

"_Agent Hill," Fury said clearly knowing what she was about to say._

"_Those cards," she continued hesitantly, "they were in Coulson's locker, not in his jacket."_

"WHAT?!" the entire group including Piper chorused upon hearing this news. Toni, Clint and Natasha were of course particularly affected by the news having known him best but Steve was not all happy about wilful destruction of property for selfish reasons.

"JARVIS," Toni said her tone full of barely restrained Fury.

"Yes, ma'am," JARVIS replied.

"Run a search on all known aliases for Agent Phil Coulson through every hospital in the United States and then look for John Does that match his description in those same hospitals," Toni instructed, "if you don't find anything search any private sector that we know of for the same thing."

"Running search Miss Stark," JARVIS informed her accepting the order.

"He might not have been lying about Phil being…" here she paused for a fraction of a second, "…dead but I have to double check just in case."

"Knowing Fury he went the whole hog and Coulson is still alive," Clint said hoping that was true as it would certainly reduce the guilt he felt over the whole Loki situation. Maybe it wouldn't be so crippling anymore and he wouldn't be as compromised.

"Well JARVIS will be done with that scan soon so I suggest we get watching this infernal movie over with," Piper suggested and exactly on cue the picture began to play again.

_Fury sighed, "They needed the push," he explained._

"Maybe we needed a push but we got it from the attack and thinking Coulson was dead. The cards were far too much," Steve said angrily.

_Hill gave him a sceptical look as Toni in full Iron Man regalia darted past the window at high speed. "We have an unauthorised departure from Bay 6," an Agent called in over the PA._

"_They found him," Fury realised, "Get our communications back up, whatever you have to do. I want eyes on everything."_

"_Yes, sir," Agent Hill acknowledged._

_Back in New York Toni flew over the New York cityscape heading towards Stark Tower as the repulsors in the boots of the Iron Man suit continued to falter occasionally._

"Too complex for SHIELD equipment," Toni muttered when she was given questioning looks, "needed the stuff at the Tower to completely fix the Mark VIII."

_The Tesseract began to throw out a slight field of neon blue energy as the device to create the portal powered up. "Ma'am, I've turned off the arc reactor but the device is already self-sustaining," JARVIS informed Toni as she drew to a halt hovering above the rooftop. _

"_Shut it down, Dr Selvig," Toni said trying to be reasonable._

"Thank you for trying Friend Toni," Thor sighed. He still didn't know exactly how his friend had been brought back but assumed he had just gotten caught up in the fighting.

"_It's too late!" he shouted up to her, "She can't stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe."_

"_I tried," Toni said plainly before aiming her repulsors at the Tesseract and firing but a force field formed instantaneously around the Cube and it fired off a burst of energy that sent Selvig flying off hitting his head and Toni spiralling through the air._

"I guess I owe you more than I knew Friend Toni for freeing my friend," Thor said simply.

"Plus the fact that without Selvig I would never have been able to close the portal," Natasha told them.

"Okay Natasha you could have easily freed him yourself. You didn't need me to do it and besides I don't need your gratitude. It needed to be done so I did it," Toni said brushing off the compliments. She didn't quite know how to deal with comments like that which were truly meant.

_The crowd on the streets looked up at the loud noise gasping as they saw a figure they must have guessed was Toni spiralling away. She quickly managed to steady herself and stay in a single place in the air. "The barrier is pure energy," JARVIS relayed, "It's unbreachable."_

"_Yeah, I got that," Toni replied before turning to face Loki who stood on the observation deck smirking up at her, "Plan B."_

"Wait you already had a plan B," Clint said baffled.

"Please, I was up to Plan G by that stage," Toni scoffed, "and I had Plans H-J mapped out by the time I got inside."

"_Ma'am, the mark VII is not ready for deployment," JARVIS informed her regretfully._

"_Then skip the spinning rims. We're on the clock," Toni provided as a solution before landing on the pad which initiated the sequence which removed her suit. _

"What are you doing?" Piper & Clint chorused. The others weren't that surprised other than Thor and he didn't see how it was worth commenting on. "I didn't know this was a viable plan," Clint said shocked.

"I did," Steve admitted. Toni had told him that it was option but not one so high up on her list.

"And you let her!" Piper practically shouted.

Before Toni could indignantly point out that she didn't need a babysitter Steve beat her to the punch, "Toni is a grown woman and I don't see how I can stop one of the strongest women on the planet from acting in a way that she sees fit. And I shouldn't because she's intelligent enough to know what she's doing."

"Thank you Steve," Toni said giving him a rare smile, "Piper, I need to talk to you outside _now!"_

Piper reluctantly rose to his feet and left the room with Toni following flashing Steve one last smile for his comment. As the door closed behind them thanks to JARVIS Toni began to tear into Piper, "What the hell is up with you Piper?! The moment we got together you seemed to keep spiralling downwards into this person who suddenly doesn't believe I can do a single thing for myself and is overly sensitive to every tiny thing. I saw a person die for the first time at the age of eight there is no way you can believe I've been affected by the deaths recently. And I've been Iron Man for much longer than we've been together. So what is your problem with everything that I do to protect people?"

"Because all you do is hang around with people who are more like you than I am. People who can keep up with you and what does that make me?" Piper snapped, "And you constantly put yourself in danger and I don't know if I can cope with it."

"Piper," Toni said a little more softly but still angrily, "that makes… no made you my boyfriend. The one person in my life who never betrayed me and you have always been important. But if you get like this because we're together then I'm sorry but this isn't working. I should have known my one long term relationship wouldn't work out."

"Fine," Piper said clearly losing his resolve, "now seeing as I'm no longer involved with your group I hope you don't mind if I retire to my office to forge your signature on some less important forms instead of watching that awful thing."

"Feel free," Toni said and as Piper was about to leave she called out to him, "You're still the first person who ever gave a damn about me so thank you."

With that she turned and walked back into the living room where the Avengers were still sitting where she had left them tactfully trying to pretend that they hadn't been listening to everything that had just been said intently. She appreciated it as she didn't think she was ready to talk about it yet. She went back to her seat next to Clint and instructed JARVIS to play the footage again as Clint squeezed her arm reassuringly.

_As the armour began to be pulled off by the mechanical arms Loki turned and began to make his way into the Tower itself. "Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki joked with a sinister smile._

"No I'm not imagining it, he is kind of hitting on you," Natasha said. She had noticed that Loki was being slightly flirtatious towards Toni when they had first met but she had brushed it off as unimportant back then but suddenly it seemed a hell of a lot more important.

"My brother always had a weakness for warrior women," Thor admitted, "It's one of the few things that we still have in common."

"_Uh actually, I'm planning to threaten you," Toni said matter-of-factly obviously having realised Loki's attraction to her as she pulled her hair out of its bun despite the fact that she knew she'd probably have to keep fighting._

"_You should have left your armour on for that," Loki laughed clearly wondering how a girl who reportedly had no physical skills could possibly threaten him._

"I think he thought I would be easy to win over to his side," Toni scoffed, "maybe even without that stupid sceptre."

"_Yeah," Toni said nonchalantly heading down the stairs, "Its seen a bit of mileage, and you've got the glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?" she finished cheekily as she walked behind her personal bar._

"You're actually offering a guy with a creepy crush on you a drink in the middle of a crisis," Clint said astonished, "only you Toni."

"_Stalling me won't change anything," Loki said clearly thinking he had caught onto the entirety of Toni's plan._

"_No, no, no! Threatening," Toni emphasised as she grabbed a bottle of whiskey, "no drink, are you sure? I'm having one."_

"You really are playing him for all you're worth aren't you," Natasha laughed.

_Loki was clearly growing frustrated with Toni's strange comments so he turned to the window and spat out, "the Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"_

"_The Avengers," Toni said simply pulling the lid off of the ornate glass bottle that held the whiskey. Seeing Loki's confused look she shrugged and continued, "That's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team but not really. 'Earth's mightiest heroes' type thing."_

_As she poured herself the drink Loki said calmly, "Yes, I've met them," the implied 'and gotten away from them,' went unsaid._

"What is your play here?" Steve said confused not quite getting it yet.

"Doubt," Toni said simply.

"_Yeah," Toni said with a smile, "it was always going to take us a while to get any traction; I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count, here. Your brother, the demigod," as Loki looked away in frustration at her having brought him up she quickly reached out for a pair of bangles that were sitting on the counter and slipped them around her wrists, "a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend."_

Steve felt very flattered that Toni had even admitted this at all because whilst it hadn't been to his face which he knew was unlikely to ever happen unless she thought she was really going to die she at least admitted it to someone.

"_A man with breath-taking anger management-issues," she continued earning a slight smirk from Loki._

"Okay, I knew you weren't bothered by The Hulk but breath-taking," Bruce said disbelievingly.

"I like him," Toni said with a smile.

"_A couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them," she concluded._

"You left out yourself on purpose I take it," Natasha asked.

"Of course," Toni said knowing Natasha was really just asking for confirmation and that she shouldn't be insulted in any way by the comment.

"_That was the plan," Loki said._

"_Not a great plan," Toni said sliding up onto the bar and sipping at her drink, "when they come, and they will, they'll come for you."_

"_I have an army," Loki said tensely._

"_We have a Hulk," Toni said conversationally as if they were simply comparing shoes._

"_Oh I thought the beast had wandered off," Loki jibed trying to put Toni off but it wasn't working._

"_You're missing the point," Toni told him jumping down from the bar and walking towards him, "there is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."_

"You should have mentioned that phrase when Fury was trying to make us have a collective catchphrase," Clint teased.

"If we had to have one that would have been okay I guess," Natasha sighed. She had been the one who had vehemently disagreed with the entire idea as she found it completely ridiculous.

"It loses its dramatic effect if used too often though," Toni pointed out.

_She drained the last of her drink as Loki advanced on her now obviously angry with her. "How will your friends have time for me when they are so busy fighting you?" he snapped._

"Oh god," Clint muttered so nobody but Natasha and Toni heard him. He couldn't bear thinking about one of his friends being taken over by that monster especially not one of the girls. Plus with the looks Toni was being given by Loki in that scene it really didn't bear thinking about.

_Loki raised the sceptre before Toni had time to react and pointed it at her chest but with a clink it bounced off the arc reactor._

"You're immune," Steve said breathing a sigh of relief.

"I think it's because this thing," here Toni tapped where the arc reactor was under her leather jacket, "blocks the pathway to my heart. Which means the magic can't get to it. I had to thoroughly check it over afterwards though just in case the magic had messed with it on top of the whole going to space thing."

_He attempted it again but the same thing happened and Toni didn't even try to prevent it obviously having figured out it wouldn't work on her. "This usually works," Loki said reverting back to his confused state._

"_Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon," Toni quipped._

"And you had to bring it back to that," Bruce sighed.

Thor was simply sitting there staring at the screen almost blankly. Toni's interactions with his brother were as hostile as anyone else's and yet they didn't quite seem to be at the same time. The weirdness of their interaction was starting to give him a headache. He much preferred just charging in but he knew Toni preferred thinking things through first.

_Loki attempted to lunge at her for that comment but she kicked his arm out of way throwing the glass she had been holding away from her so she had the use of both of her hands. He tried to get to her again but she ducked underneath his lunges which he wasn't expecting. He hadn't even been expecting her to fight back._

The others apart from Natasha were staring at her in shock when they saw she could fight without her suit. "Come on guys," Toni sighed, "don't assume. I lived with Natasha for a year and you didn't think I managed to nag her into teaching me a few things."

"So that's why you said you knew how hard Natasha's hits were," Clint realised, "I mean she mentioned in passing that she was assigned to you and I know she moved in here because you two didn't hate each other during that time but I didn't know you were as close as that."

"Shopping and drinking," the two girls chorused and the guys decided to leave it at that. They were never going to understand how girl's minds worked so it wouldn't do them much good to keep trying.

_Eventually Loki tired of swinging at her and used the sceptre to fire off several shots around her meaning she had to focus all her attention on them and he used the opportunity to grab her by the throat. He threw her across the floor and she hit the ground with a loud thump and was clearly in pain as she pushed herself up, "JARVIS, anytime now," she said quietly._

The room had tensed up a little now that she had actually been hurt instead of just dancing on the edge of being so.

_As she managed to scramble to her feet Loki grabbed a hold of her throat again and spat out, "You will all fall before me."_

"_Deploy!" Toni said anxiously as a door on the other side of the room began to slide open. She managed to spit the word 'deploy' out again just before Loki threw her out of the window. _

Steve looked immensely worried despite the fact that they knew Toni would survive this but the others guessed he had just got caught up in the movie and it had slipped his mind that these events had already happened. It had happened to them all at one point in the movie especially during scenes where they weren't featured and hence didn't know what happened aside from second hand accounts from those who were there. Toni's accounts it seemed were just like her file. Empty of most of the relevant information or anything that might worry anyone.

_Toni stretched out her arms and legs to get more surface area and hence slow her down as Loki was practically knocked over by a folded up suit blasting out of the compartment it had been hidden in and flying through the window. It opened up slightly to scan the bangles on Toni's wrists and once they flashed red in confirmation it opened completely and began to put itself on Toni._

"And that would be the other reason that you went in to confront Loki wouldn't it?" Bruce asked rhetorically, "and you knew he couldn't get at the suit because of the failsafe which is those bracelets."

"I needed to use a different suit as the Mark VIII needed to undergo serious repairs before I could even think of using it in any sort of fight. If the flight stabilisers are going the first thing I do is try and change if at all possible. And there are a lot of fail safes in those suits. I learned my lesson after the first time. For example if it's not stored in a place I approved or currently on me after a while the suit will self-destruct to stop others getting their hands on them," Toni informed the team, "haven't needed to use that function yet though."

_Just before she crashed into the crowd her mask slipped over her face and the systems activated meaning that she could fly up and avoid a collision. "And there's one other person you pissed off," she said angrily as she came up level with Loki again._

The other Avengers thought as Loki probably had that she was finally about to tell him that she was pissed off at him too but that wasn't what happened.

"_His name was Phil," she concluded. Loki raised his sceptre to fire on her again but she beat him to the punch and struck him with an energy beam that sent him flying backwards across the room._

_On the roof the Tesseract finally got up to the correct level and as the blue energy began to spin around it the moment came and a huge blue energy beam fired up at the sky and the portal was formed. On the other side of it the Chitauri saw the light from Earth's sky and began to fly through._

"_Right," Toni said turning her display screen from defence mode to attack mode, "Army."_

"And so begins lots of shots of us beating up aliens," Clint joked. Someone might have responded but JARVIS interrupted, "Miss Stark I have completed my scan of the hospital network and a man named Mr Daniel Cooper is registered at Mount Sinai Medical Centre with a stab wound to the back assumed to have been obtained during the Battle of Manhattan. He is currently in a medically induced coma until the wound heals properly and it has nearly finished doing so."

"Daniel Cooper is one of Phil's aliases," Natasha said shocked.

**A/n: Broke 4K and updated earlier than the other 4K ones. Oh how I love Mondays :) I have so much more time to write**


	19. Phil

Chapter 19 – Phil

**A/n: I'm glad you many of y'all loved the last chapter because I think it's probably the best yet. I actually planned on delaying the Piper/Toni break-up a little longer but seeing all your comments**

**Ashtree1165: Yeah, I loved that scene in the movie so :D**

**twilightjazz: Glad you enjoyed**

**paisley15: Yeah well you guys should like Mondays too you get longer updates ;D But of course but not until Iron Man; he still needs time to fully heal. While I think that would be highly likely I also think it might not have happened because they needed the missile before they killed her right so they wouldn't want her to get so down that she'd kill herself before they got it. No, I don't think Loki was really flirting with Tony but it is amazing how little editing you have to do to make it flirting. Loki clearly admires something about Tony from the looks he throws him. And yeah, he really isn't, he threatens Natasha with a painful death, Clint with the horror of having killed Natasha then death, he constantly calls the Hulk a monster, he clearly doesn't like Steve and his brother issues are more than obvious. Yet, he's reasonably civil to Tony until he pisses him off. Bruce mainly but I'll throw in some Clint to set up the parallel sequel**

**XxXSilverShadowXxX: Aww… that sucks but we all get busy. I'm glad you stuck with it too because all my readers are the best. Yeah, I'm looking forward to doing them the most.**

**3 Avengers: So glad the last chapter fulfilled your wishes. There will be development in this story but only subtly. It'll become more evident when we reach the sequels**

**Booklover2526: I had to make him alive in the end. I just love him too much to kill him off. Loki X Toni scene was the most fun to write for the last chapter**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Yep, had to make him alive. I was typing it and I was like hang on that comment is funnier now that they've been kind of flirting /lol/**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: What about Phil? /lol/ Yes, I did and she did. I just like Toni who can kick some ass okay /shrugs/ You and your action :)**

**Dragones: He most certainly is**

**ladynarutochan: I love Phil so I needed him in this story. I do like Pepperony and despite how it may seem I actually love Pepper but the Science Boyfriends shipper in me is like they must be split up.**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad**

"JARVIS, I want absolute proof. Does the description match Agent Coulson and does the exact nature of the wound match up? Lots of people were injured that day," Toni ordered snapping immediately into action.

"The descriptions of both person and wound match up," JARVIS confirmed, "accessing video feed for his hospital room."

A holographic screen flickered into life in front of the watching group and upon Steve's instruction to zoom in so they could get a look it became obvious that the figure lying in the bed was indeed Agent Phil Coulson. The swearing that erupted at this sight was more than a little obscene well except from Steve who still didn't know how to swear. Fury's name was cursed in most languages on the planet by the room before eventually Toni calmed down enough to talk again, "you know I get that Fury's plan appears to have been to motivate us and yes it worked but why not tell us afterwards. My facilities here with the advancements I could have made upon actually seeing the wound would have healed him a lot quicker."

"Fury still doesn't trust you probably," Natasha guessed, "You don't work primarily for SHIELD as you have four separate jobs in a way. You undermine SHIELD policy and are constantly hacking into our systems. So, he didn't want to give you any information?"

"Well I have it know," Toni said with a smirk, "so JARVIS arrange for Phil's transfer to a medical facility that will actually be able to speed up his recovery a.k.a the medical bay in the Tower. I can get Fury's approval."

"Of course Miss Stark," JARVIS responded before closing down the video feed.

"There's just one problem with this plan Toni," Bruce said hating to be the voice of reason in this situation, "there is no way that you can get Fury's approval for this plan."

"Not from the man himself no," Toni agreed, "but I copied his electronic signature and deciphered all the codes he uses to confirm it's him so that the use of it doesn't put up any red flags."

At the looks of disbelief from the other members of the Avengers Toni exclaimed, "what?! I'm paranoid, okay. Too many people have tried to kidnap/kill me over the years for me to relax. Besides I've never trusted a SHIELD as an organisation even if specific members have earned my trust," here she gave Clint and Natasha a smile.

"I still want to know how you hacked into Fury's personal files and got that information," Clint asked, "I get you being able to decipher the code because your brain works like that but Fury's personal files."

"The firewall was a piece of crap," Toni said nonchalantly, "it took me less than an hour to break in. SHIELD security just sucks in general if you're me."

"Miss Stark might I advise you give me the code," JARVIS interrupted.

"Right, sorry J, here," she typed it onto a nearby StarkPad with a flourish and JARVIS spoke again, "processing request with Mount Sinai Medical Centre. Restarting recording."

_Toni put extra power into the foot repulsors and sped straight towards the invading army which continued to stream from the portal. One attempted to fire a laser beam at Toni but she spun out of the way and fired one of her own back which blew up its target. She dodged a few more before one of their crafts collided with her leg making her wince._

"Wait you can feel it when something collides with your suit," Steve said concerned. She had taken some pretty heavy hits during some of their battles.

"Sometimes yeah, the technology within it has to respond to my intentions and body movement is a huge part of that so the whole thing is covered in sensors. Sometimes if something affects the suit it messes with one of them and it shocks me a little. It's a necessary evil. Especially since I need to keep the suit as light as possible because it still has weight and I have to deal with it," Toni explained.

_In response to this Toni opened up a compartment on her shoulder which contained several miniature missiles which spun out to destroy practically every alien vessel that was flying through the portal._

"I take it they have targeting systems imbedded," Clint said.

"Yes," Toni confirmed, "unfortunately they are devilishly difficult to manufacture so I have to do it myself and I don't often have the time to make more. I manage to stock up enough to have some in that compartment but don't have the time to work out how to store more. I might be able to modify them for you guys to use though. It's something else to think about."

_Down on the streets people were scrambling out of cars and taxis alike to get a better look at what Toni was doing. Eventually of course some of the Chitauri got past Toni's net and sped down to the street below and began to fire on the population but mostly just managed to hit a few empty taxis._

"Rubbish aim," Clint muttered bitterly.

_People began to gather into groups which just made them larger targets and attempted to run through the carnage to get away. Back on Stark Tower Loki had recovered from Toni's repulsor blast tribute to Coulson and he summoned his armour._

"Reindeer," Toni joked. Honestly that helmet was repulsive. Why would anyone want to wear that as a sign of being battle ready?

_He stood watching the streets of Manhattan explode upon impact with laser blasts until with a thump Thor landed on the observation deck with his hammer raised ready to fight. "Loki!" he shouted and Loki immediately spun around shocked. Clearly he had been expecting the shrapnel from the destroyed cell to kill his brother. "Turn off the Tesseract, or I'll destroy it," Thor threatened._

"_You can't," Loki snapped, "there is no stopping it. There is only the war."_

"_So be it," Thor said formally clearly disappointed in his brother._

"I will admit to still harbouring hope at this stage in the battle but it was soon destroyed," Thor interjected.

"Hope is good," Toni pointed out, "keeps a hell of a lot of people alive."

The others weren't sure they wanted to know the reasons that Toni had brought that up. But knowing the films that Amora had put together it was likely they would anyway.

_Loki leapt towards Thor swinging the sceptre which Thor ducked before swinging Mjolnir at his brother although it only ended up colliding with the sceptre itself. The blast of energy that Loki sent at Thor was quickly absorbed by Mjolnir and the next strike of hammer sent the 'R' in Stark tumbling down to hit the roof of a building below._

"That's one person I have to thank for mostly destroying that stupid sign," Toni said with a smile.

_The NYPD drove up in their police cars as civilians ran through the streets screaming as if they didn't know how to do anything else. The cops exited their cars but simply stared at the sky in shock as Toni flew overhead drawing some of the Chitauri after her. _

_Finally the quinjet carrying the others arrived and Natasha made radio contact with Toni, "Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast."_

"_What? Did you stop for drive-through?" Toni quipped a gash was visible on her cheek and the bruise around it was purpling._

"I'm sorry it took so long," Natasha apologised, "how did…?"

"The injured cheek happen?" Toni finished, "The helmet took a few hard knocks from lasers and a bit of metal became detached and scratched my face. I managed to flush the loose bits out before any more damage happened."

"_Swing up Park. I'm going to lay them out for you," Toni instructed before flying past the fight that was still raging between Thor and Loki who were both throwing heavy hits. Toni made a smooth arc in the air as she looped around several buildings with the Chitauri still hot on her tail. One didn't quite manage to make the turn and collided with another building creating a blazing explosion. The quinjet's gun descended from the fuselage and powered up. _

"It was worth a try," Natasha sighed. It had been a long shot that someone wouldn't manage to take down the jet pretty quickly. The odds had been astronomically stacked against the possibility.

_The rail gun managed to take up a few before they had to pull up to avoid a collision. "Ma'am, we have more incoming," JARVIS informed Toni. _

"_Fine. Let's keep them occupied," Toni said flatly._

_Back on the observation deck Loki briefly gained the upper hand and slammed Thor up against some glass. "Nat?" Clint asked his co-pilot. _

"_I see him," she confirmed._

"We just had to be careful not to hit Thor so going in full throttle wasn't an option," Clint stated even though the people in the room knew this already.

_The quinjet turned slowly and spotting it Loki threw Thor down to the ground to focus his attention on the attacking plane. It began to fire on him but he managed a direct hit on them with his sceptre which caused a fire to start on one of the wings. Thor took advantage of Loki's distraction to barrel into him and catch him off guard._

"Good tactic," Clint complimented, "always capitalise on distractions."

_The engine in the wing of the quinjet quickly became engulfed in flames and it began to fall with Steve in the back having to cling on to the roof for dear life. By this point Loki and Thor had resorted to having an actual fist fight. _

"At least he isn't using his weapon on you," Natasha said, "I was surprised when I saw he'd let go of it."

_Clint attempted to control the descent of the quinjet as much as was possible. He was successful from keeping it from crashing directly into any of Manhattan's buildings although he did clip some of them. Eventually he guided it to a crash landing on concrete slabs which it promptly tore up using the force created by the impact._

"That was some piloting," Toni said with a whistle, "I'm impressed."

_Natasha and Clint quickly got out of the gear that was used to pilot the quinjet and exited through the back with Steve. He looked up at the carnage happening at the top of Stark Tower and pointed out, "we need to get back up there."_

"Well at that point you did I guess," Bruce said with a shrug, "helping on the ground works as a strategy too though."

_As they ran towards the terminal for the station they watched in half-horror and half-fascination as leviathan followed the other members of the Chitauri through the portal._

"Those things were repulsive," Natasha said with an expression that radiated disgust on her face.

_It swooped down to ground level and completely smashed the statue on top of the terminal in doing so but that was the least of their worries. From its sides ropes of some kind flew out each carrying a member of the Chitauri. They landed on the buildings opposite each other crashing through windows and attacking members of the public._

"In ways I prefer the ones that are completely focused on destroying us instead of mass destruction of everything in their path," Toni sighed, "less clean up, less innocent people die and press is a hell of a lot easily."

"Although the fanaticism is hard to cope with," Natasha said completing Toni's train of thought. The male members of the Avengers shivered. Natasha and Toni thinking alike was a terrifying concept.

"_Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked._

"I wonder how I would have possibly missed it," Toni laughed.

"_Seeing," Toni said flying in closer, "still working on believing."_

"Same!" came the chorus from the Avengers in general.

"_Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" she asked confusing the others._

"You really were convinced I'd show weren't you?" Bruce said astonished and yet oddly flattered at her faith in him.

"I knew you wouldn't stand for innocent people getting hurt," Toni explained, "Plus I knew I had gotten through to you in some small way."

"_Banner?" Steve questioned._

"_Just keep me posted," Toni said quickly before asking JARVIS for details, "JARVIS find me a soft spot."_

"_Look at this!" Thor shouted when his fight with Loki hit an impasse in their fight, "Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?"_

"You make a fair point," Toni acknowledged, "not going to work on Loki."

"_It's too late," Loki said seemingly regretful, "it's too late to stop it."_

"Wow," Natasha said impressed, "I can see why they named him the God of Lies. He's good."

"_No. We can, together," Thor attempted but Loki had clearly been faking. He slipped a knife into Thor's side causing him to drop Mjolnir and snatched his sceptre back from Thor's grasp. He sighed, "Sentiment," exasperatedly and a smile spread across his face._

"It's better to try and fail," Steve said making Toni flinch. She hadn't really tried with Obie but he had been trying to kill her and Piper. It just didn't work out for either party.

_Thor launched himself at Loki and the fight resumed with Thor's foot going through the window at one point. Then he lifted Loki and slammed him down into the ground. Loki took this opportunity to roll off of the rooftop and land on one of the Chitauri vehicles but he left his sceptre up there._

"Leaving a weapon behind is not a good idea," Natasha said smugly. She was still quite proud of herself for closing the portal even if the reason the Chitauri had stopped had most likely been because of Toni. The other woman had never told them exactly what happened when she went through the portal.

_Thor withdrew the dagger from his side and tossed away sighing at yet another failed attempt to bring back the brother he used to know. Back on the ground Clint, Natasha and Steve were crouched behind a taxi as Clint told the group, "we've still got civilians trapped up there," indication some of the buildings._

"_Loki," Steve said gravely as the god's transport zoomed down and began blowing up the street as civilians fled. The whole street was set aflame as car after car caught fire and the gasoline within the tanks exploded._

"A street full of cars is not a good place for an explosion," Toni said wincing, "too easy for a chain reaction to kick off."

"_They're fish in a barrel down there," Steve said watching the explosion from a distance._

_Natasha didn't reply but instead started firing her guns at the Chitauri as Clint ran forward to the cover of another overturned taxi. "We got this, it's good, go," Natasha told Steve._

"I knew that your first concern right then was saving the people down there," Natasha informed the group, "it was better to let you do so than to have you keep fighting with us and being distracted."

"_Do you think you can hold them off?" Steve asked Clint still not sure._

"_Captain," Clint said using the controls on his bow to load an arrowhead, "it would be my genuine pleasure."_

"Definitely back to normal," Natasha and Toni chorused.

"I get how you would know Nat but Toni," Clint asked puzzled, "we don't really talk that much."

"Please, Tasha was here for a year. _A year. _She talked about you all the time," Toni scoffed.

_Clint pulled the arrow from his quiver and shot it directly into one of the Chitauri as Natasha resumed firing on them. Steve finally seemed convinced as he launched himself over the railing and headed down to the civilians avoiding blasts aimed at the bus and cars he was using to get down. As Natasha continued shooting Clint was handed people through a window of a bus and helped them rush to safety._

"I had the time and Natasha had it covered," Clint said at Steve's puzzled look, "the civilians in there were my priority."

_Eventually he tugged the door open allowing to escape under their own steam and resumed firing arrows at the Chitauri. "Just like Budapest all over again," Natasha shouted to him._

"_You and I remember Budapest very differently," Clint replied._

This earned a chuckle from the room at large. Nobody really knew the full story of what had gone down in Budapest between the pair but they knew snippets. Toni probably knew the most just because combining time spent with the pair she was the one who spent the most time with them.

_Steve continued leaping over cars that were in his path as he blindly ran towards his goal. The NYPD were attempting to fire on the Chitauri but it didn't seem to be having any effect. "It's going to be an hour before they can scramble the National Guard," a young police officer told his superior._

"Bunch of incompetents," Toni muttered.

"_National Guard?" his superior questioned, "Does the army know what's happening here?"_

"_Do we?" the other pointed out._

_Steve landed on top of the police car and the policeman instantly pointed his gun at him. "You need men in these buildings," he instructed, "There are people inside and they're going to be running right into the line of fire. You take them to the basements or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39__th__."_

"_Why the hell should I take orders from you?" the policeman asked indignantly._

"And that's what I keep asking," Toni laughed.

"I kind of forgot that some people wouldn't know who I was since I hadn't been out of the company of at least someone who knew since I woke up unless I was completely alone," Steve said bashfully, "it was strange."

_Suddenly an explosion went off behind Steve as the Chitauri came crashing around the corner. Steve slammed one off to the side with his shield before using it neatly to deflect an attack that he ended with a swift punch to the face. He dealt with three more this way actually slicing the arm off of the last one with his shield._

_The policeman turned and began repeating Steve's orders to various people, "I need men in those buildings. Lead the people down and away from the streets. We're going to set up a perimeter all the way down to 39__th__ street."_

"Guess everyone listens to you eventually Steve," Toni laughed.

_Toni flew up to the leviathan and fired several flares in its direction which managed to get its attention. It turned around to follow her cutting into several buildings in the process. "Well, we got its attention," Toni sighed, "now I need to finalise Step 2." She quickly sped away with the leviathan following._

"Step 2 really relied on you turning up so thanks Bruce," Toni said with a smile.

"You're welcome," Bruce said uncertainly.

_Clint swept the feet out from beneath one of the Chitauri before stabbing it in the chest with an arrow. Natasha was ripping out circuitry of some form from the neck of another as the next one tackled Clint to the ground. Natasha managed to get her hands on one of the Chitauri's weapons and combining it with acrobatics took two of them down with it._

_The Chitauri just kept on coming with Clint sliding across the ground at one point to get a good shot. Steve jumped back across to the pair having organised his rescue attempt and took down four more before Thor's lightning took down those who were approaching. He clearly had to steady himself as he landed due to the stab wound._

"Asgardian daggers are not pleasant to have buried in one's side," Thor said.

"Neither are Midgardian ones," Natasha replied honestly.

"_What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked._

"_The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable," Thor relayed._

"_Thor's right. We got to deal with these guys," Toni said as she flew overhead._

"_How do we do this?" Natasha asked._

"That was a fair question," Bruce said having been the only one who hadn't heard it the first time.

"_As a team," Steve said._

"_I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor insisted._

"_Yeah? Well, get in line," Clint quipped._

"Why do we not talk more?" Toni joked with a smile.

"_Save it," Steve said sharply, "Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us, and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top. She's going to need us to…"_

_Steve trailed off at the sound of a motorbike engine and turned to see Bruce arriving at the scene. The others walked over to meet him. "So, this all seems horrible," Bruce said matter-of-factly._

"_I've seen worse," Natasha quipped._

"Ouch Tasha," Toni said.

"_Sorry," Bruce said earnestly._

"_No, we could use a little worse," Natasha said accepting his apology even if she didn't explicitly say so._

"_Stark, we got him," Steve radioed to Toni._

"I was so shocked to hear that," Bruce admitted, "I thought my arrival would be a surprise to you all."

"As if you can get one up on me," Toni scoffed, "you might want to organise a department to deal with day that happens."

"I'm pretty sure we won't need it," Clint said.

"_Banner?" Toni asked._

"_Just like you said," Steve said his faith in Toni clearly restored by Bruce's appearance._

"_Then tell him to suit up," Toni said, "I'm bringing the party to you." She rounded the corner at that moment followed by the leviathan._

"_I don't see how that's a party," Natasha said puzzled._

"Yeah, we really need to talk about your definition of a party Toni," Natasha told her friend.

"Which one?" Toni quipped with a grin.

**A/n: This was a chapter, they're all breaking 4K now! Whoo!**


	20. Completing The Team

Chapter 20 – Completing The Team

**A/n: I really cannot believe I have gotten this far with a story and it's mostly thanks to all of you who are reviewing, following and adding this story to their favourites. So lots of love to all of you.**

**paisley15: Loving your song playlist for the last chapter, most of them weirdly fit :D Yes I did, I was like OMG Clint! I think that one line made him rise rapidly up my favourites list. And yes I felt cheated when Steve said right in front of Bruce that Tony had been expecting him to show up and he didn't even act surprised.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Yep, Iron Man is fast approaching. I might take a day to review the movie before posting the chapter but I might get it up the day after the interlude I'll write between the movies. Fury is going to be furious, okay, sorry, bad pun. Bad Author! Yeah, Steve's comment about her never making the sacrifice play is so coming back to haunt him.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I was just looking back on your earlier reviews and I think I've thoroughly corrupted you with my latest chapters ever since I told you Toni is a mix of Tony and me /lol/. Of course he will; he's Bruce!**

**Angelus Animi: Yeah, prepare for feels. I hope! It'll prove I wrote this well. And yes, Iron Man 1 & 2 will probably be the best parts of this story :)**

**Booklover2526: He'll be waking up and joining in soon. After all he doesn't know about this bit of the battle :) **

**Ashtree1165: Yay, I'm glad!**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad and thank you. It was always my aim to put something more in.**

_Toni flew down close to the ground and as the leviathan was following her intently it too swooped lower upturning parked cars as if they were nothing. Bruce immediately turned and began to walk towards it. "Dr. Banner," Steve said stepping forward, "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."_

"_That's my secret, Captain," Bruce told him, "I'm always angry." That was the last thing that Bruce said before he turned back the approaching leviathan and became the Hulk intentionally for the first time._

"It actually felt good to transform then," Bruce acknowledged, "for the first time ever. Maybe it's because I wasn't desperately trying to stop it from happening or maybe it was because I finally had a little faith in what the Other Guy would and wouldn't allow to happen. It was the first time it felt less like a curse."

"I did try and tell you," Toni said with a smile.

_The Hulk took a fist to the Leviathan and it ground to a sudden halt. As the back kept its momentum it caused it to fly up to a straight position in the air and was about the curl over and land on the team when Toni intervened. "Hold on!" she shouted and aimed one of her missiles at the flesh of the leviathan beneath its armour. The others instantly dived for cover as after a few seconds the leviathan exploded sending bits scattering down._

"Not the safest way of destroying a giant space whale but it was the only one we had at the time," Clint shrugged.

"The next method I used was worse," Toni said with a hint of disgust in her voice. It hadn't been the most pleasant experience of her life being inside that thing.

_The Chitauri who had sprung from the beast remained clinging onto the walls making an odd squawking sound that seemed to derive from them being angry and Bruce and Toni. But the Hulk simply roared back as Toni descended into the circle that had formed with the other Avengers. _

_Up on his vantage point Loki instructed the Chitauri to, "send the rest," and more leviathans came flying through the portal. "Guys," Natasha said seriously spotting them first._

"It was good luck that we paused there and were all in the same place," Steve commented, "or we might not have been as organised."

"Loki was trying to keep troops in reserve but he'd have been better off sending everything in at once," Toni said, "there were only five of us when the battle kicked off and we wouldn't have been able to deal with all of it at once."

"_Call it, Captain," Toni said._

"That kind of surprised me," Clint admitted, "by all accounts of you I thought you'd be vying for the leadership position."

"I'm not one for following yes but that's only because following has nearly gotten me killed on several occasions," Toni replied, "I am perfectly capable of being reasonable in that type of situation."

"_All right, listen up," Steve instructed, "until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."_

"_Can you give me a lift?" Clint asked Toni._

"_Right," Toni quipped, "Better clench up, Legolas."_

"You're so much easier to come up with nicknames for the others Katniss," Toni said with a smile. Maybe a while back Clint would have complained about the archery inspired nicknames especially since Katniss was a girl but he understood now that Toni only gave nicknames under special circumstances. When she got really annoyed (see Loki and Steve to a certain extent) and to those she liked which was basically restricted to the Avengers although he and Bruce had the most.

_Toni grabbed the back of Clint's shirt and blasted up onto the building that Steve had indicated with him. "Thor," Steve resumed, "you got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up."_

"I'm so glad we had the comm units on for this conversation or I would never have heard Captain America swear," Toni laughed.

_Thor got Mjolnir up to speed and took off as Steve addressed Natasha, "you and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here. And Hulk…"_

_The Hulk turned with a grunt to look at Steve as he gave him a one-word instruction, "smash!" The Hulk's face morphed into a sinister smile and he leapt onto the side of the nearest building slamming into one of the Chitauri before jumping across to the opposite building and spinning across it taking down several others._

"I remember enjoying that but not much else," Bruce said with a laugh, "I think he was scared at one point too. Near the end."

Toni flinched a little when she heard this; she kind of hadn't told Bruce the entirety of the story of how the fight ended. He knew that she had blown up the Chitauri ship with a missile and he knew that the Hulk had saved her from falling but she hadn't told him about her little sojourn into space. And she knew nobody else had either because she hadn't been confronted by Bruce asking her why she hadn't told him. She just wanted to have one person in her life who didn't get worried about just how willing she was to make the sacrifice play. She supposed she was losing that now. Especially since the rest of the team would know about the other times she did the same thing.

_Thor's flight took him to the top of the Chrysler building and raised Mjolnir as it began to crackle with lightning. Storm clouds gathered in the sky turning it grey and the lightning kept building until it began to run through Mjolnir and Thor and the Chrysler building became one giant lightning conductor._

"That's impressive," Bruce complimented.

_The glass on the building shattered from the sheer amount of electricity running over it as Thor put all his effort into firing the lightning that had gathered upon Mjolnir up towards the portal. The Chitauri who were in the way of the bolt of lightning blew up and the leviathan that had been descending through the portal became trapped as it became smaller and eventually began to explode._

_The scene changed back to the helicarrier where they had gotten the screens up and running after the attack. Fury was using his to watch news reports of what was going on in Manhattan. He was interrupted by Agent Hill running up and informing him, "sir. The Council is on."  
_

"And here the idiots go messing up everything," Natasha spat out. She had never been fond of the Council in the first place and now that her trust in SHIELD as an organisation as a whole was faltering she disliked them even more because they were who ultimately had the final say in what SHIELD did.

_Clint was shown standing on the rooftop drawing an arrow as Toni flew past, "Stark, you got a lot of strays sniffing your tail," he warned._

"_I'm just trying to keep them off the streets," Toni quipped in return with a slight smile. She turned a corner and headed down another street with the Chitauri soldiers still following her._

"_Well, they can't bank worth a damn," Clint laughed enjoying their interaction and hitting another Chitauri craft that was speeding past with an arrow without even turning, "so find a tight corner."_

Toni whistled appreciatively at the incredible shot which she of course hadn't been able to see at the time. Natasha watching their interactions said jokingly, "I'm starting to think we should keep you two apart, your interactions might be dangerous for others."

"_I will roger that," Toni acknowledged as she rounded another corner. Clint fired another arrow without looking which hit its target dead on. Toni turned as many corners as she could as quickly as was possible and managed to take a few of her followers out before zooming under a covered walkway sighing, "oh, boy!"_

"Those turns are hard to make and I was doing so many it was becoming overwhelming," Toni said as explanation for what she had said.

_The last of her tail was destroyed in the tunnel one even coming flying out of the exit in a ball of flame that collided with the opposite building. "Nice call," she told Clint, "What else you got?"_

"_Thor is taking on a squadron down on sixth," Clint informed her._

"_And he didn't invite me," Toni replied mock offended and took off towards there._

"I didn't realise I needed to invite you to join me in a fight Friend Toni," Thor said bemused.

"Never mind," Toni said deciding not to get into it, "I don't usually wait for an invitation anyway."

_One of the leviathans rounded on one of Manhattan's offices which was still full of civilians._

"Useless police," Toni muttered.

_But the leviathan didn't have time to round on them for the Hulk came crashing through the office stations as they dove out of his path. The Hulk just kept running and smashed through the window at the end managing to latch onto the leviathan's mouth and turn the creature away. The only damage it made to offices then was with its fin which slashed through several windows._

_Back on the ground Natasha was grappling with one of the Chitauri on the bonnet of a taxi. She managed to get her legs around its neck and pulled some circuitry from there before grabbing its staff which she used to blast it before spinning around to fire only to find Steve dropping down._

"At least I paused before firing I guess," Natasha said with a shrug. If she hadn't suspected it wasn't a Chitauri by the difference in sound from the landing she might have done so. Steve had gotten off lightly.

_Natasha sighed and steadied herself on the staff, "Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."_

"_Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," Steve said exasperated._

"_Well, maybe it's not about guns," Natasha reasoned. _

"It isn't always," Toni agreed.

"_If you want to get up there, you're going to need a ride," Steve reasoned keeping a close eye on the fresh batch of Chitauri that had landed at the other end of the bridge. _

"_I got a ride," Natasha said tossing the staff aside and throwing the Chitauri vehicles a significant look before walking over to the opposite side of the bridge from Steve, "I could use a boost, though."_

"This sounds like one of my plans," Toni laughed, "I think we've been rubbing off on each other Tasha."

"What was your first clue Annie?!" Natasha joked in return.

_Steve backed up and held his shield out in front of him before questioning, "Are you sure about this?"_

"_Yeah," Natasha said uncertainly, "it's gonna be fun." With that she ran towards Steve and jumped neatly onto the bonnet of a nearby car before giving herself a final boost off of Steve's shield and spinning up to catch onto the back of her target. Steve stared up after her in astonishment._

"It was really impressive," Steve remarked, "especially without powers."

_As Natasha flew off into the distance Steve was forced to turn his attention back to the advancing Chitauri on the bridge as they began firing on him. Up in the sky Natasha managed to securely clamber up onto a solid surface before slashing the chain that kept the Chitauri soldier there with her knife. As he fell she clambered forward before leaping onto the back of the other and sticking her knives in as a way of controlling it. "Okay, turn, turn," she muttered to herself almost having trouble controlling the craft._

"Steering that thing was a pain," Natasha sighed.

"_Less! Less!" she shouted as she took a chip off of the side of a stone building. Another craft tried to take her out but Toni quickly flew past and blasted them to stop that happening. Then she flew down to ground level ploughing through Chitauri like they were simply made of air and then landed next to Steve. She quickly took out a couple more of the aliens with him by reflecting her laser beam off of his shield before taking to the sky once more._

"Wow," Clint said disbelievingly, "I guess you really do have to see you two working together to believe it. That was almost seamless."

_Toni blasted several of them off the side of the building they were climbing up to get to Clint as he fired an arrow at close range into the one who had made it to the top before ducking another beam of energy. He rose to his feet and took down another alien craft as a leviathan passed by with the Hulk on its back throwing off attacking Chitauri members. Thor quickly joined him swinging Mjolnir into every alien he could reach. _

"We actually look like a team," Toni said, "who knew! Even back then it worked."

_The Hulk shoved a gigantic shard of metal through the leviathan's armour and Thor lit it up with lightning causing it to crash through another building. After this moment of working together had ended the Hulk took a fist to the side of Thor's head sending him flying off._

"Sorry," Bruce said wincing, "I guess he was still bitter about you beating me up the previous time I changed."

_On the roof of Stark Tower Dr. Selvig finally regained consciousness and watched in horror upon seeing the destruction that surrounded him now that he was free of the Tesseract's control. _

_The army had finally arrived on the scene and were attempting to fire at the alien invaders. This attempt wasn't all that successful but they were doing a better job at direction civilians away._

_Back on the bridge Steve struggled to keep the staff of one of the Chitauri from hitting his face and eventually managed to push him aside. "Captain, the bank on 42__nd__ past Madison," Clint relayed, "They've cornered a lot of civilians in there."_

"_I'm on it," Steve responded._

"Always go to Cap with civilian troubles," the group chorused causing Steve to blush. He knew they weren't suggesting it was a bad thing but it was a little embarrassing that he was so predictable.

_In the bank the Chitauri soldiers stood on the balcony with their weapons raised pointing at the crowd who were clustered together on the ground floor. The civilians were of course panicking as one of the Chitauri activated a form of bomb. Steve jumped in through the window and hurled his shield at that particular alien before jumping out of the way of the energy blasts from the others. He kicked the table that he had jumped behind into two of the others before running in to kick another and cause him to land in the middle of the crowd, "everyone clear out," he shouted to them as one came up behind him and grabbed him around the neck._

"Pay attention to your surroundings Steve," Natasha sighed exasperatedly. The civilians were important but Steve shouldn't be acting too recklessly whilst trying to rescue them. They weren't in any immediate danger at that stage.

_The Chitauri soldier who Steve had hit with his shield recovered so Steve took the opportunity to fling the other one who had a hold on him in front of the blast sent his way. In response the soldier grabbed the bomb and Steve swiftly rolled out of the way and held his shield up in front of his face before he was sent flying backwards by the blast onto the roof of a car._

"Ouch," Toni said sympathetically. She guessed that was where Steve's main injury from that battle came from.

_Steve pushed himself up from the car wincing in pain as the army escorted the civilians from the building. One particular civilian – a waitress – paused to look worriedly at Steve who was just standing stock still in the middle of the road before she was escorted away._

"Sorry to interrupt," JARVIS said pausing the movie, "but Agent Coulson has successfully been awakened from his medically induced coma with no complications and he is on the plane here. Recommended treatment is rest and observation so I suggest he might want to join you. Would you like to wait for his arrival?"

The Avengers communicated solely with looks for a minute before Toni spoke up, "yes JARVIS, that would be good," the longer it took them to get to any films that had been set up about her life the better.

**A/n: Okay, this one is shorter than the previous ones but the scene in the film is really short. I actually tacked a few hundred words more on by stealing some of the next scene. Next chapter Coulson arrives :D**


	21. The Sacrifice Play

Chapter 21 – The Sacrifice Play

**A/n: Two highly anticipated scenes in this chapter :) Hope you enjoy them everyone.**

**paisley15: She probably was but the angle of that shot is so awkward that I couldn't tell if she was still wearing them or not. Yeah, Bruce will not be happy.**

**Ashtree1165: All scenes at the end of the credits will be included. All of the movies will be in this story and the sequels will be focused on the aftermath**

**Booklover2526: Yes, I love reviews that tell me I'm not going OOC :D Yeah me neither they're going to be so fun to write.**

**youwannabekate: Welcome back, that does not sound at all fun :( I wondered where you had got to. Yes, I always thought that in the heat of battle you aren't going oh that was cool so I threw those comments in. 'Puny God' scene here :D**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm not planning on a Hulk out because the Hulk of course already knew about what Toni had done. He has his own intentions after all. Toni and Clint are amazingly fun to write together with Natasha as the person who is going oh no! They're dangerous together**

**sjc18: Thank you! Glad you're enjoying it**

**Guest: Depends on which sequel you read; there will be a Bruce/Toni sequel and a parallel Clint/Toni one as well as oneshots of Thor/Toni and Steve/Toni**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I'm thinking of making him quit SHIELD and Toni hire him as something to do with the Avengers /lol/. Waitress girl is called Beth but yeah I don't know why they focused on her so much**

**Dragones: Glad you think so**

**Harm Marie: That's good**

The Avengers sat around having conversations trying to not to focus on things they didn't want to come to light that might be in future movies. Or even this one but that was mainly Toni. Clint and Natasha had drawn her into a conversation about combat that she could easily keep up with whilst pulling out a StarkPad and beginning to think up ways to make Clint arrows that would return to him after they were fired.

Bruce had been quiet for a while but eventually Thor and Steve's insistent argument over how to work some of the technology in the tower required his intervention for they were both wrong. He didn't want them attempting to prove they were right and pissing off Toni again. He didn't think he could deal with an angry Toni too often.

Luckily these conversations ended up being quite in depth because it took a while before JARVIS spoke up again, "Agent Coulson is asking for permission to access this floor."

"Permission granted," Toni replied, "and fabricate this for me please," she threw the data on her StarkPad up onto a holographic rendering screen showing the bracelet she had come up with that would fit in perfectly with Clint's suit and wouldn't impede his ability to fire his arrows.

"What is that and when did you come up with it?" Steve asked confused.

"It's a recall device for Clint's arrows similar to the one I made for your shield only it will put them in his quiver not his hand. And I'll have to put a receiver inside each of the arrows so it'll take me more time. And I did it while I was talking to Clint and Natasha of course," Toni said simply.

"Cool," Clint said smiling, "did you make sure...?"

"You can still fire your arrows without it getting in the way," Toni finished for him, "I triple checked it."

"Thanks," Clint said as the elevator doors opened revealing Agent Coulson.

"So," he said stepping into the room, "how long has it been?"

"Less time than Steve," Toni laughed walking up to him, "it's been three months Phil. The battle happened the day they told us you had died."

"Wait," Phil said confused, "they told you I was dead."

"Well Fury specifically," Natasha interjected, "it's good to have you back Phil. We have a lot to catch you up on."

The majority of the next hour was spent telling Phil about what had happened in the three months he was unconscious including this business with Amora and her trickery. But they left out the bits of the battle they hadn't seen yet. The movie would show that much better than they ever could. It took a little bit of explanation to get him comfortable enough to sit in Piper's old seat next to Bruce as his last memory of him was the destruction of the helicarrier but Phil trusted the others and if they said it was okay he believed them.

"_Director Fury," the Councilwoman insisted, "the Council has made a decision."_

"_I recognise the Council has made a decision," Fury retorted, "But given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I have elected to ignore it."_

"The one time Fury and I will ever agree," Toni interjected, "on anything."

"_Director, you're closer than any of our subs," the head councilman informed him, "you scramble that jet…"_

"_That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman," Fury shouted, "Until I'm certain my team can't hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population."_

"Wait, they tried to get him to do what?!" Phil exclaimed appalled.

"Yeah, the World Security Council has been completely re-elected after I made that affair public," Toni told him, "I didn't feel we deserved people like that in charge of all of our dealings."

"It does occasionally help to have someone who is mostly in with the media," Clint laughed.

"_If we don't hold them here, we lose everything," the councilman attempted to persuade._

"_If I send that bird out, we already have," Fury said dismissively and ending the call._

"At least Fury knows that there is a line that you do not cross," Bruce reasoned, "under any circumstances."

_Loki attempted to fire a beam from his craft at Natasha but it went wide and she simply sighed and said sarcastically, "oh, you!"_

_He continued following her and firing on her so Natasha called out, "Hawkeye!"_

"_Nat, what are you doing?" he asked spotting her flying._

"I had absolutely no clue why you were taking the risk of flying on one of the alien transports at the time," Clint pointed out, "all I saw was you hurtling towards me with Loki after you."

"_Uh… a little help?!" she asked as one of the beams made contact._

_Clint pushed a button on his bow and raised it seamlessly shafting an arrow as they turned a corner. "I got him," he said with a smile._

_As Loki drew closer Clint fired and it headed straight towards Loki who caught the arrow in his hand but as he smirked at Clint the arrowhead exploded sending him crashing down onto the Stark Tower observation deck. The craft fell destroying both the 'S' and the 'T' of Stark._

"Always have a back-up plan," Clint said smugly. That had been a highly satisfying moment seeing Loki fall due to one of his arrows.

"Thank you for destroying more of the sign," Toni said with a smile, it wasn't like she was going to give Loki any credit.

_Natasha leapt from the back of the craft and flipped through the air before rolling to a halt on the roof of the tower. As Loki stood the Hulk leapt up in front of him and slammed him through the window and it appeared Loki had finally gotten to the very edge, "enough!" he shouted. _

"Telling the Hulk that isn't going to do anything," Bruce scoffed, "unless you're Toni that one time it apparently happened," he quickly amended before Toni could butt in.

"_You are, all of you, beneath me!" Loki continued, "I am a god, you dull creature. And I will not be bullied by…"_

"And the Hulk is not going to like that," Steve predicted.

_The Hulk simply grabbed hold of Loki's foot and pulled him and began slamming him into the floor at high speed._

"Oh," Toni said giving Bruce a mock glare, "so that's where the holes in my floor came from."

"Hey I helped fix them," Bruce replied, "we're even!"

_When he had finally had enough the Hulk walked away scoffing, "Puny god!"_

The team couldn't help the laughter that erupted upon this statement. They had been holding it in ever since Bruce had ruined Loki's speech but it became impossible after that. "I really wish I remembered this," Bruce said when everything had calmed down.

_Natasha approached the Tesseract as Dr Selvig said weakly, "the sceptre…"_

_Natasha turned to face him saying, "Doctor," cautiously analysing whether he was really back._

"I couldn't be sure as I wasn't there when he hit his head," Natasha explained, "I thought he sounded different though."

"_Loki's sceptre," he continued, "the energy. The Tesseract can't fight, but you can't protect against yourself."_

"Oh," Toni sighed, "I know how you closed the portal."

"How did you get it from that?" Natasha said incredulously.

"There's a double meaning behind his words," Toni said, "whether it was intentional or not. He was saying that he couldn't fight himself but he was also saying that the sceptre was part of the Tesseract. It can't fight against itself either."

"_It's not your fault," Natasha said crouching down next to him, "you didn't know what you were doing."_

"There was no blue in his eyes," Clint said, "that's how you knew you could trust him."

"Yes," Natasha confirmed.

"_Well actually, I think I did," he realised, "I built in a safety to cut their power source."_

At this Clint felt a surge of guilt again. Selvig who had no formal spy training whatsoever had somehow managed to maintain a bit of defiance and build a way out of their situation. Clint hadn't done anything but kill people.

"Stop it Clint!" the girls chorused and Clint did a double take. He knew Natasha would understand his thought processes but Toni? They barely talked. Mind you it was probably a girl thing. He was relieved to see that the others looked worried too. It wasn't just the combination of Toni and Clint that was dangerous. In fact Toni and Nat were probably worse together and they had been interacting for much longer. They were so screwed if they ever messed with either of them.

"_Loki's sceptre," Natasha concluded._

"_It may be able to close the portal," Selvig confirmed and looked down at the observation deck, "And I'm looking right at it."_

"It is a very fortunate thing that I caused my brother to lose it then," Thor said.

_Thor had acquired one of the alien crafts himself as he knocked two of the Chitauri off it with Mjolnir. He started to steer it away but was interrupted when one of the leviathans came flying right at him through a building. Toni flew up alongside it and began firing her lasers at its armour._

"_Ma'am, we will lose power before we penetrate that shell," JARVIS informed her so she turned the lasers off. As the leviathan crashed on top of another building Toni did a wide arc so she was now facing it and asked, "JARVIS, you ever hear the tale of Jonah?"_

"Oh no," the room chorused.

"I'm the one that had to do it," Toni pointed out, "so I don't know what you're fussing about."

"_I wouldn't consider him a role model," JARVIS said nervously._

_Toni opened up flaps on the knees of the suit that let out daggers and kept flying straight towards the leviathan. And as its mouth opened she flew inside. As she made progress through the creature it began to explode and upon reaching the tail it blew up and Toni was sent flying before crashing through a bus stop and into an upturned car. _

"It worked," Natasha acknowledged, "but you really shouldn't have done it."

"The key thing is that it worked," Toni said clearly not bothered by her past actions.

_Toni pushed herself up from her prone position on the pavement now with a new head injury and rose to her feet before being knocked back by laser blasts from a Chitauri member as a circle of them advanced on her._

_On top of his rooftop Clint turned and shot one of the Chitauri who had crept up behind him but when he reached behind for another arrow he found out that he had run out._

"Which is exactly why I designed the recall device for you," Toni said with a smile, "it should be done by the time this film ends."

_So he just used his bow to take down the next alien that came up to him before tossing it down off the building. When he turned he saw a whole fleet of them approaching obviously intending to take him out so he pulled the arrow from the last alien he shot and put it into a specific arrowhead in his quiver. As the laser beams began hitting the building he leapt off of it and span around shooting the grappling hook arrow onto the side of said building._

"Well that's one way to get off an exploding building," Natasha quipped.

_Clint used the momentum from the fall to crash through an office window out of the line of fire hissing in pain from the glass he had just landed on._

_On another rooftop the Hulk was smashing alien after alien with little to no trouble at all. It was hardly surprising when a huge group of their crafts began to fire on him leaving shouting in fury amongst a giant mass of fire and smoke._

"Well that's the good thing about being the Hulk," Bruce laughed, "Nothing they could do was really affecting me."

"_Director Fury is no longer in command," the Councilwoman informed one of the pilots, "override order 7-Alpha-1-1."_

"_7-Alpha-1-1 confirmed," the pilot responded, "We're go for take-off."_

"_Sir, we have a bird in motion," Hill shouted, "Anyone on the deck, we have a rogue bird. We need to shut it down! Repeat, take-off is not authorised!"_

_Fury decided to take the more direct approach and sprinted from the room._

"Bloody council," Toni muttered. She was not looking forward to seeing the next scene.

_Fury ran out onto the deck carrying a gun he'd obviously acquired from the armoury along the way. He managed to take the wing off the plane with it and while it skidded to the edge of the helicarrier it didn't fall and now couldn't take off. Suddenly Fury spotted another plane speeding off and while he raised his handgun against it, it wasn't enough!_

"He probably should have realised the Council would have a back-up plan," Natasha admitted.

_Upon re-entering the building Fury reached for his comm unit, "Stark, do you hear me? You have a missile headed straight for the city."_

"Of course they gave you that assignment," Phil said darkly. He knew a little about Toni's previous problems with suicidal moves.

"_How long?" Toni asked distracted from her fight and getting hit over the head for her trouble._

"_Three minutes, max," Fury informed her, "the payload will wipe out midtown."_

_Toni fired at the approaching soldiers and then instructed, "JARVIS, put everything we got into the thrusters."_

"_I just did," JARVIS told her as she pushed herself off the ground and then launched herself into the air. _

"Toni, I get the feeling nobody told me the whole story about this," Bruce said cautiously especially when a brief flash of guilt crossed Steve's face. He had been the hardest to coerce into not telling Bruce about Toni's heroic actions.

_The plane carrying the missile approached Manhattan and the pilot pushed the red button that fired the missile. "Package is sent," he informed the council, "Detonation in 2 minutes, 30 seconds, mark."_

"How can someone be comfortable enough with authority to push a button meant to wipe out a civilian population?" Bruce asked angrily his eyes flashing green.

"A system of zero accountability," Toni replied, "and I am very glad that I am no longer a part of it."

_Back on the ground Thor and Steve both caught their respective weapons and were using them to fight off the Chitauri. As he was turning Steve took a direct hit to the stomach where he was already injured and fell to the ground. Thor deflected the blasts with Mjolnir as Steve slowly tried to move. Eventually Thor used Mjolnir to blast a car into the attackers and helped Steve up._

"_Are you ready for another bout?" he asked Steve concerned._

"_What, are you getting sleepy?" Steve said putting aside his pain._

"I knew it would heal soon enough with the serum so I could keep pushing through it," Steve informed the group.

_Back on the Tower roof Selvig was setting up his equipment as Natasha walked over sceptre in hand. "Right at the crown!" Selvig instructed._

_Natasha reached in and as soon as the point of the sceptre touched the energy field it put up resistance and sparks flew but the sceptre slowly began to pass through the field. "I can close it," Natasha said tensely from the sheer force it was taking to keep the sceptre on track, "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."_

"That was one of the hardest things I have ever done," Natasha told them, "the whole thing was fighting me and I thought I was going to drop the sceptre in the field and lose our only way of winning. I think it was sheer willpower that stopped me."

"_Do it!" Steve shouted but Toni interrupted him with a quick, "no, wait!"_

"_Stark these things are still coming," Steve said confused. _

"I didn't have a clue why you wouldn't want the portal closed! It was really confusing," Steve announced.

"_I got a nuke coming in," Toni told him, "It's gonna blow in less than a minute," she paused as her systems identified the missile. Then she set off changing direction as fast as the suit could ending up right behind the missile, "and I know just where to put it," she finished._

"Toni you didn't!" Phil exclaimed but Bruce was trying not to be too worried. Hopefully she just threw it through the portal after getting some leverage instead of flying through herself.

_She caught up with the missile and latched on beneath it and let the momentum from it carry her with little help from the suit's power._

"_Stark, you know that's a one-way trip," Steve said worried._

"_Save the rest for the turn J," Toni told JARVIS ignoring Steve's comment. _

"You really are going to aren't you, again? Toni…" Phil began but Toni pointedly ignored all comments. She had done what she had done and she was still alive right now. Okay, so maybe by all accounts she might have been dead for a little bit but resuscitation was awesome and it worked in this case.

"_Ma'am, shall I try Mr Potts?" JARVIS asked._

"_Might as well," Toni said weakly._

"At least you kept your promise to him," Phil said softly.

"Yeah well, I promised," Toni replied. It had only made it worse when Piper hadn't answered because she didn't know if she'd ever get to talk to him again and they had promised each other to talk about it if that ever happened.

_Back on the Stark Industries plane Piper's hands were clenched onto one of the chairs in front of him as the TV played, "The streets of New York City have become a battleground. The Army is here trying to contain the violence but clearly, it is outmatched." _

_Set aside on the ledge that contained the cup holder Piper's phone began to buzz with Toni's face on the screen but Piper was too caught up in the report to notice, "And I have to say, in all my years of reporting, I have never seen anything like this."_

_The scene changed to show Agent Hill watching the same news report, "we have limited information on the team but we do know that billionaire Toni Stark's Iron Man…"_

"The suit is kind of recognisable," Toni said with a shy smile. She knew Phil and Bruce were not going to be very happy with her in a minute but what choice did she have. There wasn't enough time to get the leverage to just throw the thing. Her math was never wrong.

_Toni sped towards Stark Tower with JARVIS still showing that he was calling Piper on the screen. Steve and Thor looked up as Toni activated extra thrusters are turned so she was flying parallel with Stark Tower. Both the Hulk and Natasha looked up too as they heard/saw what was happening but Toni just kept going and passed through the portal disappearing from view._

"Toni!" Bruce said calmly but the anger in his voice and glint in his eye was unmistakeable, "why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I couldn't okay," Toni spat out, "I can't tell anyone about what I did without one of two things happening and I'm pretty sure you like most of the team would have gone for the second one which is thinking I'm suicidal which I definitely wasn't at the time. I did the math; there was no other way. And I'm sick of everything people say about me when I'm right there."

Toni would never admit it but they all knew that the tear that slipped down her face wasn't imagined. And the rest of the team couldn't help but feel sorry because they had jumped to the conclusion at times that Toni had been using the sacrifice play as an out from life.

Clint awkwardly put his arm around her as he was the closest and she didn't shrug it off although she didn't look entirely comfortable. As the silence stretched on JARVIS restarted the footage.

_The agents at SHIELD cheered but only Fury seemed to realise the true implications of what Toni had just done and looked anything but happy._

"Nick Fury may be many things but he's not stupid," Phil said, "he'll be regretting doubting that Toni should have been on the team because of that move."

"I was regretting everything I said too," Steve admitted seemingly forgetting that Toni was still in the room, "it was heat of the moment stuff sure but she proved me wrong on every count."

_In space Toni appeared to be in a lot of pain if the look on her face was anything to go by and her breathing was shallow. JARVIS faltered and the power to the suit failed as all systems went offline. Toni had just enough strength left to let go of the missile and begin to fall as the missile flew forwards and collided with the mother ship causing an explosion._

"So that's why everything powered down," Clint said not letting go of Toni although she attempted to shrug him off, "they lost their link to what was keeping them active."

"I knew the missile would continue in a straight line because nothing in space changes direction unless it collides with something else," Toni explained, "there was no reason the chemicals wouldn't work on something in space so I thought I could at least cut down their back up. I trusted you guys to get rid of the rest."

_Back on Earth the Chitauri dropped to the ground and even the leviathans powered down crashing on top of buildings as everything ground to a halt. Thor and Steve looked around confused as back in space Toni's eyes flickered shut as she continued to fall. "Come on, Annie," Natasha muttered._

_Suddenly the light from the explosion reached the team and Steve faltered slightly before saying, "Close it."_

"Well done," Toni complimented.

"What?!" Steve said confused as he had been expecting outrage.

"In that situation the nuclear fallout could have come back through the portal and still wiped everyone in Manhattan out and maybe further. For all you knew I was already dead Steve. You made the right call," Toni insisted.

"Thank you I guess," Steve stuttered, "but I thought the explosion was you actually so…"

"It would still have been the right call Steve," Toni interrupted.

_Natasha reluctantly turned back to the Tesseract and pushed the sceptre completely in cutting the connection which was keeping the portal open. As the energy stopped transmitting one last beam shot up and the portal began to close as Steve looked down sadly._

_But Toni was still falling at speed and she just made it through the portal before it closed. Upon seeing the falling suit Natasha's lips quirked into a smile and Steve exclaimed happily, "son of a gun."_

_But Toni didn't stop falling._

"So you were telling the truth," Bruce said shocked, "the Hulk really did save your life."

"Why would I lie about something as serious as that?" Toni said offended. She knew she bent the truth on occasion but flat out lying about something as serious as someone saving her life was lower than she would ever dare to go.

"_She's not slowing down," Thor said panicked beginning to spin Mjolnir as if to go up and catch her._

Toni mouthed 'thank you,' to Thor for this and was rewarded with a beaming smile.

_But the Hulk got there first leaping across and catching Toni whilst slowing their descent by digging his heels into the building. Then he softened the landing by jumping onto a car and then skidding to a halt throwing Toni off him._

_Steve and Thor ran to her side and Thor rolled her over as Steve asked, "is she breathing?"_

_Thor ripped off her mask and threw it aside and Steve leaned down to check but he obviously couldn't hear anything and the arc reactor wasn't glowing which even Steve could tell was probably not a good thing._

**A/n: Back to over 4K again :) And it's not technically a cliffie seeing as y'all know what happens next**


	22. The Aftermath

Chapter 22 – The Aftermath

**A/n: Haha, people still getting annoyed about the not-cliffie. At least with me they don't remain cliffies for long cause I update so fast.**

**paisley15: You know what happens so… I'm glad you're smiling. Smiling is good**

**Booklover2526: Yes well it was an edge of seats moment during the film anyway. Yes, the Iron Man movies are up next. **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I know I left you with **_**such **_**a terrible cliffie /lol/ And yes he will, I couldn't keep him away**

**ReadPaxJoy: I'm glad you are :)  
**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: The sacrifice play is kind of her signature move. Toni would never lie to you, unless she really doesn't want to talk about it ;) **

**ladynarutochan: Maybe it's because if I had written it not from the film it would be evil. Very!**

**Maeleana: Usually because it's past 3am here and there are natural breaks :D I'm glad my story is addictive **

**youwannabekate: Well not really because they both know she's still alive cause she's sitting right there. Bruce's jobs in fights seem to be smash things and save Toni :) I know it's such a relief to have Phil back here and I don't particularly like anyone in SHIELD other than the obvious so /shrugs/**

**NC: Don't worry more characters from Thor including Sif and Loki will come in for the sequel and there will probably by Sif/Loki dynamics because I ship it :) But I don't want to bring them in for this story. And I will probably throw in Toni/Natasha/Sif just because I can :D**

"You were actually dead and you didn't even tell me," Bruce said appalled, "Toni you need to tell me these things. I understand you had your reasons but you have to tell me. Promise me."

"Fine," Toni said reluctantly, "I promise but you really don't want to know. I did try and warn you. JARVIS, if they ask you can tell them about past incidents but let's wait until the end of these films so they know what they need to ask about."

"Of course ma'am," JARVIS responded, "restarting footage."

_Steve sat back away from Toni obviously having determined that she was no longer breathing and his face was a picture of guilt. _

"I thought I would never get to apologise after you had just proved me wrong a million times over," Steve said nervously to Toni but Toni who had already guessed this was the case just smiled at him.

_Suddenly the Hulk roared in anger and Toni's eyes flew open as she gasped loudly. Steve's attention was instantly drawn back to Toni as the Hulk continued to roar._

"So I saved your life," Bruce said disbelievingly, "twice!"

"That pretty much sums up your actions of this particular part of the movie perfectly Bruce," Clint joked, "just add the word smash and there you go. Perfect analysis of the events." This earned him a slap on the arm from Toni but he didn't really mind.

"_What the hell?" Toni said breathily as she came back to a conscious state as Thor's expression changed to one of bewilderment._

"I didn't know how it was possible for the dead to return without Hel's assistance. And Loki would surely not have let you come back but you managed it somehow," Thor explained.

"The shock and the fact that I hadn't been dead for long was enough to restart my heart," Toni told him.

"_What just happened?" Toni asked, "Please tell me nobody kissed me!"_

"You would say something like that after just waking up," Natasha said with a smile.

"_We won," Steve said after taking a moment to take everything in._

_Toni sighed deeply in relief when she heard the news._

"I thought that maybe it hadn't worked from your expressions," Toni admitted, "Piper is really the only one that worried about me until then. It was a bit strange."

"_All right, yay!" Toni said weakly, "Hurray. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma?"_

"I wondered why we went for that in particular after we contained Loki," Clint realised.

"Yes, well, when you die you get cravings okay," Toni laughed.

_Steve laughed happily when he saw that Toni was straight back to her rambling ways. "There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here," Toni continued, "I don't know what it is, but I want to try it."_

"_We're not finished yet," Thor told her._

"I was wondering when you were going to get the others and deal with Loki," Phil admitted, "You were acting like you had forgotten about him."

"I don't think that would even have been possible," Toni replied, "especially since we didn't know what the Hulk had done to him until we met up with Natasha who spotted him lying there when she went down to retrieve the sceptre."

_Steve looked up at him as he spoke and Toni sighed knowing that had been coming, "And then shawarma after," she sighed._

_Back in Stark Tower Loki was pulling himself up off the floor groaning in pain but as he was turning over he paused as standing right in front of him were all six of the Avengers with Clint raising an arrow and pointing it directly at Loki._

"_If it's all the same to you," Loki said directing his comment to Toni, "I'll have that drink now."_

"I'm getting the distinct impression that Toni was the only one who knew what was going on most of the time," Phil commented, "it seems that whenever the rest of you get confused by scenes of this Toni knows what's going on."

"It's probably because she's the least comfortable telling us what happens to her," Natasha pointed out, "and for good reason," she tacked on quickly as Toni began to look offended.

_The scene changed to show a panoramic view of the city before moving on to show the news reports covering the Battle for Manhattan, "Despite the devastation of what has been confirmed as an extra-terrestrial attack, the extraordinary heroics of the group known as the Avengers."_

"Didn't take very long for us to get into the news under that name did it?" Bruce said with a slight smile. It was the first time anyone had ever referred to him as hero and many of those news reports had.

"When I'm in charge of press nothing takes very long," Toni said with a shrug. Her first encounter with the paparazzi that had actually been focused on her had been when it had been leaked to the public by someone on her father's R&D staff that she had built a circuit board in his lab out of scraps at four years old. He had been trying to keep it quiet because it wouldn't do for a girl to enter the family business and he still wanted a son but when the news got out he decided just to settle for just having Toni.

_The news reporter continued, "has been to many a cause not only for comfort, but for celebration." Clip after clip was shown of people wearing t-shirts and other merchandise to support a specific Avenger. "It's just really great knowing they're out there," one civilian was shown saying, "that someone is watching over us."_

"That's the most common opinion nowadays," Steve acknowledged, "it was more split back then because people only really knew Toni but we've managed to sway most of the doubters onto our side although there are always going to be those who still think we aren't working for their benefit." This last bit was accompanied by a scowl. The one time the team had ever seen the Captain get really angry was when someone at a convention accused him of working against his country. And they never wanted to see it again. It wasn't like he was the most frightening of the group whilst angry that 'honour,' definitely went to Toni, Bruce and Natasha but it was so rare that it just looked unnatural on Steve.

"_I don't know," another civilian said, "I don't exactly feel safer with those things out there._

"_It just seems like there's a lot they're not telling us," the woman who was with him said worriedly. _

"Well," Toni said, "I'm glad everyone else was beginning to figure out that the government is not infallible."

"_Superheroes in New York? Give me a break," another man scoffed._

_Another screen showed a New York senator making a statement, "These so-called 'heroes,' have to be held responsible for the destruction done to this city. This was their fight. Where are they now?"_

"And this is why I hate senators," Toni muttered, "and they hate me too. Trying to steal my suit."

_On a bridge in New York Thor escorted Loki forward. Clint and Natasha walked forward together away from a SHIELD car. Steve and Bruce both came up with them as Toni entered from the other side of the bridge. The news report audio continued over the top of the scene, "Tough questions are being asked about the Avengers themselves. Their sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance…"_

"_What, that this is somehow all their fault?" the waitress Steve had saved named Beth said incredulously, "Captain America saved my life. Wherever he is, and wherever any of them are, I would just… I would want to say thank you."_

"Aww… someone has a crush on Steve," Toni teased.

_Fury was listening to this report and presenting it to the World Security Council. "Where are the Avengers?" the head Councilman asked Fury._

"_I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts," Fury informed the Council, "I'd say they've earned a leave of absence."_

"I'm not even on your payroll," Toni scoffed.

"_And the Tesseract?" the Councilwoman asked as Selvig was shown taking the container for the Tesseract out of the back of his van as Bruce loaded the Tesseract into as Steve gave it a dark look._

"_The Tesseract is where it belongs," Fury admitted, "Out of our reach."_

"Took him long enough to figure that out," Bruce said.

"_That's not your call," the Councilman attempted to argue._

"_I didn't make it," Fury informed them, "I just didn't argue with the god that did."_

"It would have been unwise to argue with me on this matter," Thor stated, "but Fury had at least enough common sense not to do so."

"He does have some which is more than most of the rest of the idiots that work for SHIELD," Toni acknowledged reluctantly.

"_So you let him take it," the Councilman said as the screen showed Thor saying goodbye to Selvig, "and the war criminal, Loki, who should be answering for his crime."_

"_Oh I think he will be," Fury told them._

_Thor held out the other side of the transport device built with the Tesseract and its container to Loki and he grabbed a hold of it and Thor and Loki disappeared in the blue light of the Tesseract as the other Avengers stepped away._

"Thank you again Friend Toni for figuring out how to make the Tesseract transport us back to Asgard," Thor told her.

"Wait, you built that," Phil said, "I knew you were good at building things but something that complex."

"_I don't think you understand what you've started," the Councilwoman stated as Steve and Toni shook hands, "letting the Avengers loose on this world," Natasha retrieved a bag from the SHIELD car and handed it over to Bruce as Clint climbed into the driver's seat, "they're dangerous," finally Toni and Bruce got into her sports car._

"Supposedly to go to the airport," Bruce said giving Toni a mock glare.

"The pretending to be cross at me for giving you endless access to R&D labs and a nice place to sleep is getting really old Bruce," Toni said rolling her eyes.

"_They surely are, and the whole world knows it," Fury pointed out as Toni and Bruce sped off, "every world knows it."_

"_Was that the point of all this?" the head Councilman asked, "A statement?"_

_Steve set off on his motorbike as Fury told the council, "A promise."_

_The screens showing the Council powered down and Fury left the room walking back towards the command centre. "Sir, how does it work now?" Hill asked, "They've gone their separate ways. Some, pretty extremely far."_

"Pretty extremely," Clint laughed, "what kind of phrase is that?"

"A grammatically incorrect one," Toni scoffed.

"_If we get into a situation like this again," Hill inquired, "what happens then?"_

"_They'll come back," Fury said confidently._

"Well he got that right," Steve admitted.

"_Are you really sure about that?" Hill asked._

"_I am," Fury confirmed._

"_Why?" Hill said puzzled._

"_Because we'll need them to," Fury concluded._

"Yes, well, they seem to need us a lot more than they ever predicted," Natasha said, "I barely get sent on SHIELD missions anymore."

"Which is why we should resign!" Clint replied, "but we'll talk about it after this one is over."

_Suddenly the scene changed to show the place where Loki had been given his commands. "Humans," the Other growled, "They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled." The figure on the throne pushed himself up and the Other quickly lowered his head continuing, "To challenge them is to court death."_

"Well, at least that part of the plan worked out well but I have a really bad feeling about this," Bruce said.

_The figure in the chair turned with its face twisted into a sinister smile._

"THANOS!" Thor shouted clearly shocked, "that's who Loki was taking orders from!"

"I'm not sure I want to know," Steve said worriedly.

_The movie had one last scene to show as all six Avengers were shown eating shawarma at a restaurant. Clint's foot was propped up on Natasha's seat as the rest sat around the table awkwardly occasionally taking a bite except for Thor who was gorging himself on his meal._

"Wait you actually went for shawarma," Phil said shocked and it was enough to break the tension in the room. Suddenly everyone couldn't help but laugh because they hadn't realised quite how awkward they had looked all sitting around in silence getting their strength back. They had struck up a conversation after those first few tense minutes but that time before it had happened actually looked hilarious.

**A/n: It's the end of the Avengers movie so this chapter is short just to wrap it all up. Next chapter will be an interlude with no watching of any movies – prepare for a Bruce/Toni conversation about her actions – and then it's on to Iron Man :) Love y'all!**


	23. Stop Hiding

Chapter 23 – Stop Hiding

**A/n: I'm still in shock that the Avengers movie is over and I'm at the first interlude to be honest. The ride so far has been amazing and thank you all for joining me. I don't know how I got yesterday's chapter out actually because AVPSY came out and I was watching that at the same time as typing.**

**ReadPaxJoy: I'll do my best but Thor is really not very easy to write. You're welcome**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Yes, looking forward to doing Iron Man. Poor Toni it'll probably be very traumatic for her as well as the fact that the events of her life equal two movies and nobody else has two. I had to keep Phil around :)  
**

**paisley15: Someone is happy about Bruce/Toni interaction :D It's not over yet; I'm putting all the movies in the same story so Iron Man will be in here too. So this story will probably end up rather long. Yeah, come on Hill, speak ENGLISH!**

**Booklover2526: I'm glad I wrapped it up well **

**NatalieNamikaze2006: They're not going to like Iron Man believe me. Any of them who had lingering thoughts about Toni building her suit for no reason are going to get a cruel wake up call.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Well it technically is incorrect plus it just sounds clumsy and I'm like no… I'm pretty sure most people would.**

**Dragones: I know right; I'm really excited.**

**3 Avengers: I don't know who is more excited about that part of the story me or you guys :) Enjoy :D**

**ladynarutochan: /lol/ I'm afraid you'll have to settle for conversation :)**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad.**

**youwannabekate: I would try and read them aloud but it's typically past midnight here when I begin writing so it's probably not a good idea. I have my headphones in and everything to stop any noise disturbing people.**

The screen that JARVIS has been displaying the movie on went blank after the shawarma scene as the AI spoke, "Ma'am, I am detecting four more reels of similar length on the Digital Versatile Disk. May I advise that you take a brief rest before resuming your viewing?"

"Of course JARVIS," Toni said glad of an excuse not to get anywhere near a movie that might possibly be related to her own life in more detail, "that is if the others wish to."

"I think it sounds like a good idea," Phil interjected, "from what I've heard you have just finished a battle and you jumped straight into watching these movies without any real recovery time so you should probably eat and check on any minor injuries."

"Agent Coulson is right," Bruce said not comfortable with calling the other man Phil having never really met him until he had come to join them today, "I know Steve and Thor will both be fine by now and I don't have any injuries myself either but I need to check with Natasha, Clint and Toni to see if they do."

"I guess we will adjourn temporarily then," Steve said finally and the group went their separate ways. With much protest Bruce and Phil escorted the three Avengers without super powers to the medical bay with all three protesting in one way or another along the way. Steve and Thor chose not to follow and instead took the second elevator (which Toni had built when the renovations had been happening) to the gym. They had a feeling that venting their anger at SHIELD through punching things would be more productive than talking right now.

~#~#~

Thankfully the only injury that Bruce found on any of the unwilling patients other than superficial cuts and bruises was a first degree burn on Clint's leg that hadn't really been bothering him unless he put direct pressure on it. Relieved that he hadn't neglected anything serious Phil asked for a word with Natasha and Clint about SHIELD matters which left Toni alone in the medical bay with Bruce.

"Okay," Bruce said seriously, "now that there's nobody else here we're going to have a proper discussion about how you're still hiding things from me that the others know about."

"Bruce do we really have to have this conversation now?!" she responded quickly very keen to put it off as long as possible.

"Yes," Bruce insisted, "I know you Toni and you'll deflect this conversation for as long as you can and if I let you off now you'll get more confident about being able to blow this conversation off and I'm not letting that happen."

"Can we at least take this somewhere more private Bruce? This place isn't sealed off for obvious reasons," Toni sighed giving in somewhat. She still had time to talk him out of interrogating her.

"Fine," Bruce compromised, "Lab 10?"

Toni nodded and walked back into the elevator followed by her friend and typed in the access code that would get her into that particular lab. Each individual lab in the building had a separate access code. Everyone knew how to get in to 1-3 as they were weapons development and Toni would only be found in there if she had been working on something to aid them in the next battle they got themselves into. 4 was the lab that Toni had allocated to Erik Selvig and only Thor was the only other person with the access code to that room other than Toni so he could visit his friend. Number 5 was similar although it was of course Jane and Darcy's lab instead of Erik's. Then numbers 6-8 were dedicated to biology and were primarily Bruce's labs although Toni could sometimes be found working in there as well if she felt like it. Everyone knew the emergency code for those labs but otherwise couldn't get in to disturb the pair whilst they were working unless you were Piper. Labs 9-11 were Toni's personal labs and worked on the same principal as Bruce's. Anything higher than 11 was so highly classified by Toni that the Avengers doubted that even Piper knew that they existed.

It was a good thing that the elevator ride wasn't particularly long due to the sophistication of the machinery because neither person within it seemed to know what to say to each other. But when they were finally in the lab Bruce found his voice once more, "okay, so why _are _you hiding things from me Toni?"

"I basically explained why I was hiding the one thing I was only hiding from you back when you saw it one screen," Toni said exasperated, "anything else I've been hiding basically nobody knows about. I mean you're the only one that knows that the arc reactor keeps me alive and the only one other than Piper who knows how to replace it."

"You still won't tell me how you came to need it though," Bruce said.

"And if dear Amora," Toni said sarcastically, "doesn't see fit to tell the room about the incident I promise afterwards I will tell you at least some of what happened but I seriously doubt she won't have meddled there too."

"Was it really that bad?" Bruce said suddenly worried.

"It's a time of my life that I would rather forget but I know I can't," Toni admitted.

"Why not?" he said although he had his suspicions.

"Because it made me who I am today," Toni informed him, "before the arc reactor, before Iron Man. I wasn't the nicest person in the world. At times I had good intentions that didn't work out the way I wanted them to and at times I was just a bad person in general. If I forgot that I might relapse to being that person and I can never go back. I promised myself I wouldn't."

"And that's exactly why I think you never could," Bruce said softly.

Toni scoffed a little at this statement. She was still the same person she was back then just with her eyes having been opened a little. There was still so much she had to atone for in her life and she could never go back to being the arrogant billionaire who tried to pretend she was happy having nobody really give a damn about whether she lived or died. She had been incredibly touched by Piper's red eyes when she had come back after those three months in captivity because it meant someone cared.

"Aren't you the one that's been telling me to have faith in myself?" Bruce asked rhetorically, "well I'm saying you need to take your own advice. The only reason you were able to become the person you are today at all is because back then you actually at some level wanted to be this person. From what you've said about your family and especially your father they had a big influence on your behaviour so if I'm not allowed to beat myself up about it then neither are you."

"Okay," Toni agreed only half-believing what Bruce had said. She could see the logic behind his words and knew that they could apply to her situation but did they really? She was still more inclined to believe the moniker that the media had so 'affectionately,' given her. The Angel of Death indeed!

"Then we don't need to talk about this anymore but please for me. Stop hiding! You need to let somebody in and it might as well be me," Bruce relented.

Toni gave him a nod of acknowledgment before the pair returned to the elevator which this time had a much more relaxed atmosphere as Bruce had gotten the answers he wanted and Toni had at least managed to strike a deal which meant she didn't have to deal with all of her issues at once.

"JARVIS engage elevator mode 2-Alpha-6-7-Echo-4 allowing two separate access codes to be entered at once," Toni told her AI.

"Elevator Mode 2-Alpha-6-7-Echo-4 engaged," JARVIS responded.

Toni punched in the code for Lab 2 which contained the fabricator which would now contain the recall device she had designed for Clint as well as a new quiver of arrows identical to his old one but with the recall implants included. She could update all of his old arrows as well which would give him spares to keep in storage. Bruce then typed in the code for Lab 6 informing her that he had an experiment in progress that he would like to check on. Of course this led to an in depth discussion about Bruce's hypothesis as the elevator zoomed upwards.

~#~#~

Upon exiting the medical bay the three SHIELD agents had gone up to Natasha's rooms to have a private discussion about their future with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Clint was now of the firm belief that they should leave the agency because of how manipulative and in some cases downright idiotic their superiors were even to those who had proved they had the interests of the agency as their priority. Phil hadn't seen the extents that SHIELD had gone to first hand having come in too late in the movie for that but the second hand account had alarmed him enough that he was beginning to doubt his long term friendships with Maria Hill and Nick Fury. Especially after hearing how callously Fury had ruined his prized possession as a 'motivation tactic,' when it had really just been a low blow and a dig at both Steve and Toni. And to make matters worse he knew Phil was alive and that those cards meant a lot to him. Natasha had her own conflicts about the issue because she had definitely been a bad person before Clint had saved her although that hadn't been part of his original mission of course. But SHIELD had contributed to her reforming and it had basically become her whole life. That was until she had met Antoinette Stark and somehow ended up her friend. And Annie deeply distrusted government organisations especially ones that kept threats secret from people who needed to know about them and made nuclear weapons as a deterrent. Annie had twisted her views significantly enough coupled with watching this movie that she had her doubts. But what would she do when she didn't have Avengers missions to deal with without SHIELD.

"We really should leave you know," Clint said breaking the proverbial ice, "we've got the Avengers now and I'm pretty sure Toni would love it if we left. That way we don't have to deal with the manipulation and the missions. No more forced seductions because you know you'd have to volunteer for something like that under Cap, no more killing people without knowing why you're doing so and no more putting ourselves in danger without a good reason."

"Well," Natasha considered, "when you put it like that it sounds very tempting but you're forgetting that at the moment SHIELD controls all minor Avengers missions so our input for the team would lessen which I'm not complaining about because they run us off our feet for things SHIELD agents should be able to deal with but then we wouldn't be doing much most of the time."

"I wouldn't say that," Toni said entering the room having used the override code to get to Natasha's suite, "if you say were to quit SHIELD Natasha well I might just have to give you back your position as an assistant only to me rather than to Piper. And then you could have all the stuff you had then back and also get to kick the asses of anyone who bothers me which preserves my image of being useless outside my suit."

"You'd give me my alias back?" Natasha said actually thrilled by the offer. It had been one of her more pleasant assignments and the promise of adding on being a bodyguard to that position made it all the more pleasant.

"Well, you look a little different now but I think we could manage it," Toni replied with a smile.

"Okay, then I say why not then," Natasha changed her tune now that she had a guarantee that she would not be sitting around bored when not fighting with the Avengers.

"Well, I'll leave you to talk Phil into it then Tasha," Toni said before turning to her original purpose for coming up to the suite, "Clint I have something to show you."

Clint joined her in the elevator puzzled as they had only begun talking more often when the films had been produced by Amora so what did she possibly have to show him right now.

"Here," she said handing him a wrist band identical to the ones that he always wore in a fight, "replace one of your wristbands with this and it should recall your arrows to you. Remember this is still a prototype so there could still be some bugs but just come to me about any and I'll find a way to fix them. Now I also made this," here she passed over Clint's new quiver, "all those arrows are fitted with the recall device and I've kept the quantities of the different types of arrowheads the same as the previous configuration and I'll eventually get around to stripping those down to make them recallable too."

"Wow, this is just…" Clint said lost for words, "Where will I test them out? I doubt you want me to rush into battle and use a prototype."

"Of course not, that's part two of what I have for you," Toni said punching in a code to the elevator systems, "okay; you just need to remember 1-Charlie-3-Romeo-Delta and you'll get access to this room."

Clint quickly committed this to memory. It was one of the advantages of training to be a SHIELD agent. You had to have the ability to train your memory so you would remember every tiny detail about an alias which meant remembering a passcode to a place you would likely use often was no trouble at all.

When the elevator doors opened Clint was once again reduced to stunned silence at the sight before him. There were moving targets flying across the top of the space which began moving the moment the elevator doors opened. There were also standard targets but these were distinguished by the fact that they were emblazoned by pictures of one of the people Clint hated the most in the world; Loki.

"How…?" Clint managed to say breathily.

"Well I know you've always wanted to put an arrow in Loki and doing it to him literally doesn't seem like it would be a good idea at the moment so I figured you could take it out on him in this way," Toni explained.

"That's brilliant," he exclaimed, "but how did you set this up so quickly?"

"Well, the idea has been in the works practically since you moved in and I had everything programmed it just needed the finishing touches and I told JARVIS to do them whilst watching the movie once I got my hands on a StarkPad so you wouldn't find out earlier than I intended," Toni revealed, "I wanted it done so when we inevitably took a break I could show it to you."

"Well, I see no reason not to try it out right now," Clint said with a smirk loading his quiver onto his back and programming his bow to let the shaft of the arrow pick up an ordinary arrowhead. Quick as lightning it was loaded onto his bow and he fired it at one of the fixed targets hitting the picture of Loki directly in the eye causing the smirk to become even more pronounced. It took a few seconds but the arrow dislodged itself from the target and flew neatly back into the quiver ready for another use.

"Before you ask, anything that isn't activated immediately won't be returned to the quiver until you activate it and I made it so one of the chemicals in the exploding arrows neutralises the recall effect so you won't get an explosion pulled back to you," Toni informed Clint who had indeed planned to ask those questions next. It seemed Toni had covered all of her bases.

"Well, have fun," Toni told him heading back to the elevator but JARVIS interrupted, "Mr Barton may wish to accompany you ma'am for Mr Rogers has assembled the rest of the team as well as Agent Coulson within the lounge room and they are waiting for you two to be done before they resume the observation of the Digital Versatile Disk."

"Thank you J," Toni said, "Come on then Merida, time to go see what Amora's concocted for the next round."

**A/n: This chapter is fairly long for me seeing as I haven't included any of the movie sections in here and this is all original. It's still an interlude though so not a main part of the story but I decided to put in a Clint/Toni scene too to set things up for the parallel sequel :) **


	24. Afghanistan

Chapter 24 – Afghanistan

**A/n: Here we go! The start of the Iron Man movie and I hope it lives up to your expectations. And I made Toni bisexual as a way to make scenes work without too much alteration. No regrets :) **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked those scenes. And Fury will be kept out of the loop until the three hand in their resignations and yes he will take it out on Toni because he really doesn't like her under most circumstances. **

**paisley15: Outright laughing at your review right now… oh god! I couldn't resist giving Tasha her position back :) And I'm glad you liked the MOMENTS. AVPSY is amazing and made me cry and laugh within the same minute as usual and Darren and Evanna were simply incredible. The format basically just means some of them have scripts and you get someone reading the more complex stage directions that they didn't have time to set up.**

**Booklover2526: Yeah, that's why I included it to kind of make the pacing a little better. It will be revealed if they have left yet very soon.**

**ReadPaxJoy: Yes! It actually came across as cute /lol/ De nada :) I love all of my readers so replying isn't a chore at all :D  
**

**Guest: I think Toni does ship Clintasha and yes one of the sequels will be Bruce/Toni with Clintasha and Jane/Thor. In the parallel sequel Natasha is going to firmly tell Toni that she has no real feelings for Clint as that is going to be a source of conflict for her. **

**Dragones: Yeah I love the movie too so I couldn't resist the reference. Plus I'm from Scotland so :) **

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Whatcha crossing your fingers for? And yes Toni is going to freak out whilst watching the movie as she realistically should. It's a very personal time in her life that's going to be shown to everyone. I love him too :)**

**whitetigerwolf: As I said in the summary there is no watching of The Incredible Hulk in this story. It may be in a later one but the reasoning behind its absence will be speculated accurately on by Toni much later on in this story. **

**Harm Marie: I'm glad**

**youwannabekate: I couldn't resist the name change what can I say? :) SHIELD doesn't need common sense. Okay, maybe they do but we want rid of them anyway. You didn't offend me at all if I wasn't writing in the early hours of the morning I would definitely use that technique and I have in the past.**

**katie: I'm glad you think so :) **

Clint and Toni emerged from the elevator in the midst of a heated discussion about what could be done to improve the archery range. As Toni had never used a bow and arrow before she had just gone for the first things that had come to mind but Clint had many suggestions and Toni knew she had the skills to implement them.

"And so I was thinking," Clint said oblivious to the stares the pair was getting from the rest of the team, "that you could probably set up a holographic simulation which I could activate which would be based on our real battles and seeing as it's possible to interact with the holograms here it would be an effective training system."

"And not only would it be an amazing test facility but I could use it for training and so could everyone else. Isolating weak points that you have in battles when you're not in any real danger is the best way to improve on them. Plus I can develop a system that cuts you out of the simulation if you take a death blow or something that would put you out of action in real life," Toni said excited by the possibilities, "it will work for team training sessions as well."

"No more having to borrow the training deck on the helicarrier," Clint said with a smile.

"Definitely not," Toni spat out, "that thing is nowhere close to the original design that was on my plans but SHIELD engineers will forever think they know best."

Steve cleared his throat loudly and the two suddenly remembered that the other Avengers had called them up to the lounge room for a reason and they were kind of delaying their progress. Both quickly apologised (even if Toni didn't really mind being delayed in getting to movies about her if there were any) and took their seats on the couch next to Natasha.

"Okay, JARVIS, let's see what our 'friend,' Amora has in store for us now," Bruce said inadvertently echoing some of Toni's sarcastic statements from earlier.

"Activating Digital Versatile Disk footage," JARVIS informed the group.

_On the screen an image of a desert formed which while not barren was pretty close. In the background mountain after mountain rose up forming a scenic backdrop for the military Humvees that were approaching._

"Oh god," Toni muttered, "my life guys. And please just remember that I've changed a lot since the beginning of these events because this is going to be bad enough without you throwing hate at the me of today."

"I don't care how you were back then. I've told you, if you can look past the things I've done there is no way I'll not be able to look past anything you did years ago," Bruce reminded her as she got similar statements from the others. Still, they hadn't seen it yet.

_Suddenly over the whistling sound of the wind a stereo began blasting out AC/DC's Back In Black. _

"We're never going to be rid of AC/DC with Annie in these movies," Natasha laughed, "if she hadn't already told us this movie was about her life I would know purely from the soundtrack."

"That's because none of you are cool enough to listen to classic rock," Toni retorted.

_Words were displayed on the bottom of the screen proclaiming this scene to be taking place in 'Kunar Province, Afghanistan.'_

"So we're finally going to find out what actually happened when you were there," Clint said, "you kept mentioning it throughout the last film."

"Yeah," Toni said simply and Clint noticed that she was quite tense and probably had been since it had been revealed that this movie would be about her. He knew from her previous statement that she wasn't proud of some of her actions back then but what was making her so tense?

_The Humvees continued down the dirt track as the AC/DC was revealed to be coming from a CD player within one of the Humvees which the soldiers were regarding with looks of bewildered amusement. Either their focus was on the stereo or on the woman who sat in the back sipping on a Scotch. This woman was revealed to be Toni Stark. _

_The soldiers were clearly too nervous to talk to Toni and eventually she became annoyed enough that she spoke, "I feel like you're driving me to a court-martial. This is crazy. What did I do?"_

"Only you could silence a military vehicle," Steve laughed having been in plenty in his time and they were usually loud and boisterous places. It was quite a feat to be able to silence them completely.

"_I feel like you're going to pull over and snuff me," she continued, "What, you're not allowed to talk? Hey, Forrest!"_

"_We can talk, ma'am!" the soldier opposite her said nervously._

"_Oh, I see. So it's personal," Toni quipped. _

"_No, you intimidate them," the soldier driving said making it clear that she actually a woman._

"A female warrior," Thor exclaimed, "I have not met many on your planet besides Lady Natasha and Lady Toni."

"Well, they're more common in the military these days," Toni informed him, "although there is still a large gap between the numbers of female and male recruits."

"_Thank god, you're a woman. We've got to break into other fields someday right? Female soldier is a good start," Toni exclaimed happily._

"_I'm an airman," the soldier replied, "and I would think that you would be the prime example of a woman in power yourself Miss Stark considering all the things you've done."_

"_Well, I guess I'm just encouraging everyone to be like me then," Toni said without a hint of sarcasm._

"I can see that you haven't changed your opinion on empowering women any since then," Natasha interjected.

"Well, that was one of the things that I had right back then," Toni said with a shrug, "don't fix what isn't broken and all that."

"_Ma'am, I have a question to ask," the soldier in the passenger seat said._

"_Yes, please," Toni said relieved._

"_Is it true you went 12 for 12 with last year's Maxim cover models?" he asked._

"Wait, aren't they all women?" Steve said confused, "why would he ask that?"

"How has he not picked up on it?" Phil asked bewildered. He had thought the fact that Toni swung both ways although more seriously towards men had been fairly obvious. She wasn't exactly shy about her past conquests even if she didn't go out looking for them anymore ever since Afghanistan. Of the people in the room Phil was the only one who knew most of the story about what had really happened in Afghanistan as he had gotten the spoken report from Toni before she had wiped the digital records. But he respected her decision not to know all the details of what had happened to her.

"_That is an excellent question," Toni said removing her sunglasses, "Yes and no. March and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately, the Christmas cover was twins. Anything else?"_

"Wait, what?" Steve blurted out.

"I swing both ways Steve which means I'll happily be with a guy or a girl," Toni explained, "sure I mostly go for guys but I won't turn a woman down either. I knew a lot of them weren't actually attracted to me and were going for me just because of my money and my fame but at the time I didn't really care. I haven't done that since the time in my life that Amora has apparently seen fit to show you all."

Steve was left to digest this information as JARVIS restarted the movie and the others turned their attention back to it.

"_You're kidding me with the hand up right?" she said to the soldier she had jokingly called Forrest. _

"_Is it cool if I take a picture with you?" he asked nervously._

"_Yes," Toni said with a kind smile, "it's very cool!"_

"That was nice of you," Bruce said eager to point out good deeds that Toni had done back then to show her that he was right about her inherent good personality. It might not be working yet but over time it would be sure to do something.

_The soldier quickly pulled a camera out of one of his uniforms many pockets and handed it over to the man in the passenger seat who smiled and said, "all right!"_

"_I don't want to see this on you MySpace page," Toni told Forrest seriously as he threw up a peace sign, "please, no gang signs," he quickly put it back down again but Toni changed her mind, "No, throw it up. I'm kidding. Yeah, peace. I love peace. I'd be out of a job with peace."_

"So you're still a weapons developer at this point," Steve said seemingly having recovered from the shock that Toni played for both teams.

"Not for very long after this but yes," Toni told him, "I am!"

"_Come on," he said impatiently, "Hurry up! Just click it. Don't change any settings just click it."_

_But before the picture could be taken the Humvee in front was blown to smithereens and the Humvee with Toni in had to be stopped abruptly with a shuddering bump as pieces of debris fell on top of the bonnet. Toni herself ended up taking a knock to the head as it slammed up against the seat behind her._

"How bad was the head injury?" Bruce asked concerned.

"In light of everything that happened after this I really didn't stop and check to see if the wound had healed," Toni admitted, "it felt superficial anyway as head wounds always look worse than they actually are as you would of course know."

"_What's going on?" Toni asked as the female airman began screaming, "Contact left!"_

"_What have we got?" Toni tried again determined to get some answers._

"It's better to be informed but in a crisis situation people don't remember that," Natasha told the group.

_As soon as the airman exited the vehicle she was taken down by a gunshot prompting the man in the passenger seat to shout, "Jimmy, stay with Stark," before exiting himself. But his luck was no better for as he fired back he took a shot to the chest which shattered the windshield. "Son of a bitch!" Jimmy shouted preparing his own gun as he moved to depart the Humvee._

Steve was used to images like that. People dying that he didn't know but still had to find some way to get over as seeing their deaths was traumatising enough. Especially if it was someone who you had one brief exchange with even if it was only civil and not as pleasant as Toni's exchange with these soldiers had been. But Toni had been a civilian; some of the things she had said led him to believe that she was no stranger to death at this point in her life but it still couldn't have been easy for her to cope with.

"_Wait, wait, wait!" Toni shouted as he slammed his door shut yelling at her to, "stay here," before promptly being taken down by a rain of bullets of which several ricochets and misses managed to take out some of the glass of the window of the Humvee._

"Even I didn't know about all this," Natasha admitted, "Phil did you…?"

"Phil was the one who debriefed me Tasha," Toni answered for her friend, "he knows all but the most minor details which aren't of any great import anyway. But he knows most of the things that I later wiped from my file the minute Phil put them on there."

_All around Humvees were blowing up and Toni clearly realised it was only a matter of time before she was next so she threw open the door to the Humvee and stumbled out._

"Advantages and disadvantages," Clint said blankly trying to hide the fact that despite knowing Toni was here and fine he was worried, "it gets you away from a prime target but there's still shrapnel and weaponry flying around for you to get hit by. Mind you there is probably a greater chance of survival outside the vehicle."

_She quickly sprinted across the ground which had to be difficult in the low heels she was wearing and dived for cover behind a rock. _

"Always learn how to do things in heels," Natasha said approvingly, "women are more likely to get caught in inconvenient outfits for fighting than men so we just have to learn to adapt."

"Even if it means ripping up dresses made by Louis Vuitton to get any kind of manoeuvrability in a crisis situation," Toni agreed wholeheartedly.

_She neatly pulled her phone from her pocket and flipped it open beginning to message someone on it when a bomb collided with the ground just feet away from her with the words 'Stark Industries,' printed on the side of it._

"Oh god!" Bruce said voicing what the others had all been thinking.

_Toni scrambled to her feet but she wasn't in time and the bomb blew up throwing her back in a fiery explosion landing on her back with astounding force. As bloodstains began to come through her white shirt her eyes closed and the screen faded to pure white light._

"Wait, it was something that traumatic and then you came back and refused hospital care and therapy," Natasha said shocked causing the others to all stare at Toni incredulously.

"By the time I got back I had problems that I didn't trust a single doctor in the world with," Toni told them, "I didn't know Bruce back then and too many people would try and make off with everything I had left if I let them in. Plus I didn't need a shrink to tell me that I did have PTSD but that it was channelling it into my work and hence had a coping method. I could manage that myself even if my doctorates aren't in psychology."

"Wait you have doctorates?" Steve said puzzled.

"I have 3 PhD's, 4 Masters degrees, and one Bachelor's degree," Toni informed the stunned group, "mostly just got bored and decided I might as well get something out of my intellect to prove it."

"What are the PhD's in?" Clint asked however it was Natasha who gave him his answer, "if I'm remembering correctly you have one in engineering, one in physics and another in chemistry. Your Masters are in English, French, Biology and Computer Science and the Bachelor's is a Spanish one."

"Congratulations! This is why I'm rehiring me as my PA," Toni said with a smile surprising Bruce, Steve & Thor who hadn't known of this development.

"I'm surprised you haven't extended the two remaining science Masters," Bruce revealed.

"Haven't had the time lately or I would have," Toni said with a shrug, "I don't need the PhD's to prove I can do things."

"Okay," Steve said seeing her point, "but why does nobody call you Dr Stark?"

"Because they're ignorant I guess," Toni said, "I don't really mind that much."

_As the light faded a man could be heard speaking in Urdu as a bag was pulled off Toni's head showing that she was a mess of cuts across her face and her normally immaculate hair was like a rat's nest. As her eyes opened she quickly took in her surroundings noting that the scenario was being filmed._

Steve's only thought was, 'oh no!' One of the other Avengers – he thought it had been Clint – had mentioned a war in front of him a while back and they had told him about Afghanistan and Iraq. If Toni was where he thought she was then his meagre apologies were simply not going to cut it.

_As the shot pulled away from Toni's face it showed that her entire torso was bandaged up with blood soaking through it. She had been given a black shirt to go over it but for the purposes of the video it was left hanging open as one terrorist continued with his demands._

The room was generally speechless upon seeing what had actually happened to Toni which led up to the events where she changed her ways. They hadn't thought that anything too serious had happened. Even Natasha who knew more than anyone in the room but Phil about Toni's situation hadn't suspected it was that bad. Plus she was ready to shoot someone upon seeing the state of undress they'd left Toni in. That was if Toni hadn't already used her significant power to destroy them in which case she might have to go down the range Clint and Toni had been describing when they walked into the room and shoot some targets. Urgently!

**A/n: Again, this is shorter than usual just to kickstart the events of Iron Man. I'll probably cover all of the flashback in the next chapter although I offer no guarantees of course. Several nods to my headcanons in this chapter so see if you can play spot the headcanon! :D**


	25. The Angel Of Death

Chapter 25 – The Angel of Death

**A/n: Hello! Only person in the world who loves Mondays here :) My headcanons are getting a lot of love right now so glad you all liked them :) Enjoy! OMG we broke 200 reviews, you guys are awesome**

**Ashtree1165: I'm glad you enjoyed it :) Hope you enjoy the rest just as much**

**Guest: That happens to me all the time too. I'm just going to sleep now… oo update! Well, they'll be shocked for sure**

**youwannabekate: Aww… your rambling PM's were so flattering :) You know I think it's the first time someone has actually referred to me by name on here /lol/. It just made the storylines work better and I couldn't resist, poor Steve he'll be subjected to a lot in these movies. You can ask and I may provide; I was considering it anyway. Headcanons are awesome /yup/**

**The Dark Lady55: And I can't wait to write it :D**

**Booklover2526: I'm glad you liked the start of IM! If they knew everything this sequence wouldn't be as fun for me so I could write their reactions. Besides with Toni it would be unrealistic anyway**

**paisley15: Congratulations you are the master of Spot the Headcanon. You got all of them :D Mind you I had that discussion with you about headcanons :) I'm thinking about it but it won't be until after the promised Clint/Toni conversation which I thought up a while back. **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: If Obadiah was alive I wouldn't like to be him when the Avengers find out what he did. S'all I'm saying :D**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: There's a lot of Toni and Steve angst in this section :D Toni is strong but the point is many people still don't see her that way including to a lesser extent her teammates and this movie is out to prove them wrong.**

**3 Avengers: I probably won't expand on them purely because of the direction that the torture would be liable to take on and the fact that the heart surgery scene is a little awkward already because she's a woman. **

**Maeleana: As long as you tell me what you're putting in your own story and you credit me with the idea I don't really mind just don't take chunks because that's plagiarism.**

**Ganondorf-Lover: I'm glad you love it and I've watched the movies and insane amount of times writing this and they're still epic so I see no reason why you shouldn't watch them again :D Yay, always love comments that tell me I'm not OOC and compliment my Toni.**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad!**

**Guest: I always do :) **

**TheGiggleMonster: Yeah, if Phil ever came back for real that would be my reaction :D RDJ has said that he'd love to keep playing Tony Stark for as long as he can so it's likely that isn't a true rumour (or at least I hope) the more accurate ones are that Gwyneth as Pepper may not be in it. The Avengers doesn't work without Iron Man after all.**

The room was still dead silent as JARVIS paused the movie to give the Avengers other than Toni time to digest the severity of the situation their friend had found herself in a while back. They knew that the situation could go in a number of ways following this event and they weren't particularly keen to find out which one of them had actually happened. This is why it was a great relief when JARVIS restarted the movie and for now it wasn't a continuation of the previous event.

_The words 'Iron Man,' in block capitals were emblazoned on the screen before a narrator began to speak, "Toni Stark," the black faded away to show a gathering for an awards ceremony with the words, 'Las Vegas, 36 Hours Earlier,' displayed across the bottom of the screen as it was revealed the narrator was for a presentation on Toni._

"Yay," Toni said sarcastically, "more of the old me who I don't like anymore. Best day of my life."

Bruce shot her a worried look; he knew how it felt to hate a part of yourself of course and it looked like Toni was suffering through the same thing. She regarded the person she had been in the past as someone separate from the her of today which was probably accurate but she had decided that person was someone she hated. That wasn't good for someone whom according to Natasha had once been considered for therapy and by her own admission had post-traumatic stress disorder.

"_Visionary. Genius," the presentation continued, "American patriot."_

"The three nicest terms I heard you described by back then," Natasha said with a laugh attempting to ease the tension in the room.

"Well," Toni admitted, "they're most of the good qualities I had before I became who I am today."

"_Even from an early age," here in the presentation pictures of a young Toni began to be shown, "the daughter of legendary weapons developer Howard Stark quickly stole the spotlight with her brilliant and unique mind. At age four she built her first circuit board. At age six his first engine."_

"You were that young," Steve said incredulously.

"Technically my first circuit board was before that but the one I'm credited for is the one that my father found me finishing," Toni informed him, "that was the first time he admitted having a daughter might be an asset professionally."

"_And at 17, she graduated summa cum laude from MIT," was the next statement. _

"The drawing on the board, that's Dummy," Clint realised.

"Yeah he was one of my theses that year; I built JARVIS shortly after I got home. He's named after our old family butler who was the one person I trusted to always take my side if I was right," Toni told the group.

Steve suddenly realised that while he might not be pleased that some of the things in Toni's life had happened to her contrary to Amora's intentions it might give the team a better understanding of the woman in an Iron suit. She hid everything away so thoroughly that it was hard for anyone to say that they truly knew her. Piper was probably the one exception to that rule but it was highly likely that some things were even hidden from him by the paranoid billionaire. If he could understand her maybe he wouldn't make another serious blunder and earn her contempt once more.

"_Then, the passing of a titan," the voice said showing a newspaper article containing the details of Howard's death._

"Wait, Howard died in a car accident," Steve said ignoring the general taboo on the name within the Tower that had never been officially imposed but didn't really need to be explicitly stated due to Toni's reaction whenever he was mentioned.

"_Howard Stark's life-long friend and ally, Obadiah Stane, steps in to help fill the gap left by the legendary founder," the voice relayed, "until, at age 21, the prodigal daughter returns and is anointed the new CEO of Stark Industries."_

_In the background the man identified as Obadiah Stane was seen applauding Toni's image with a grim expression on his face._

"Friend Toni how is it that we have never met this man of such importance?" Thor inquired.

"You'll find out by watching this no doubt," Toni told him not wanting to give anything away that the footage didn't.

"_With the keys to the kingdom, Toni Stark ushers in a new era for his father's legacy, creating smarter weapons," here diagrams and schematics of Stark Industries were displayed, "advanced robotics, satellite targeting. Today, Toni Stark has changed the face of the weapons industry by ensuring freedom and protecting America and her interests around the globe."_

"And then changed it all over again by eliminating all of her products from production permanently," Bruce acknowledged.

"Okay, it set them back a bit but people were abusing the privilege of having my innovations available and I had to put a stop to it," Toni said firmly.

"_As liaison to Stark Industries," Rhodey said as the spotlight came up on him, "I've had the unique privilege of serving with a real patriot. She is my friend and she is my great mentor. Ladies and gentleman, it is my honour to present this year's Apogee Award to Miss Toni Stark."_

"That award is really exclusive," Clint said shocked.

"It's just another piece of trash that doesn't really mean anything. I don't like getting the accolades really unless I feel like I've truly done something to deserve them," Toni scoffed, "and coming up with things my brain does naturally doesn't feel like I'm doing anything that impressive."

"The science experiment you were doing the last time I saw you before the Avengers Initiative began was impressive enough to merit an award I think," Phil brought up.

"That probably was yes," Toni admitted.

_The tables broke out into a whole host of applause but there was no sign of anyone moving forward to receive the award, "Toni?" Rhodey questioned._

When people through her looks asking why she hadn't been there she simply said, "piece of trash remember. I didn't want to deal with all the pomp and circumstance in that room. I hate crowds."

"But you always organise balls and you mingle perfectly well there," Steve said puzzled.

"Most of those are for charities and are a necessary evil," Toni informed him, "and the ones that aren't were mostly for show. Image is everything in high profile business."

_Obadiah shook his head at Rhodey subtly indicating the empty seat next to him. _

"That was cruel," Toni said with a scowl, "he could have got word to Rhodey that I wasn't there and he could have presented it in a manner that told everyone he knew I wasn't there. Although he really should have known that I wouldn't turn up because I never collect awards in person."

_As Rhodey looked embarrassed to have been announced someone who wasn't present Obie rose from his seat and made his way up to the podium saying, "Thank you Colonel!"_

"_Thanks for the save," Rhodey muttered stepping away._

"Wouldn't have had to be saved if he hadn't gotten you into the situation in the first place," Clint said already disliking the man.

"_This is beautiful," Obie said holding up the award, "Thank you. Thank you all very much. This is wonderful. Well, I'm not Toni Stark," this statement was met with amused chuckles, "But if I were Toni, I would tell you how honoured I feel and what a joy it is to receive such a prestigious award."_

"Actually I was planning on ignoring the speech you wrote for me Obie and just winging it," Toni said to laughs around the room.

"_Toni, you know…" he said about to make her excuses for her, "The best things about Toni is also the worst thing. She's always working."_

"Was that actually true back then?" Bruce asked knowing full well that she never stopped working nowadays.

"I had the same sleeping habits back then aka I didn't sleep until I dropped so yes I did work a lot but at that particular moment in time. I wasn't working that was just his excuse," Toni answered.

_Back in the casino Toni dressed in a rather short black and white striped dress and sunglasses rolled two dice down a casino table shouting, "work it!" as the people around her cheered when the numbers came out right. _

"You were gambling?!" Steve said disapprovingly.

"It was Vegas and I was bored," Toni said shrugging off his disapproval, "and you're breaking your promise not to judge me on actions prior to a point I designate."

_Toni was equal opportunity flirting with both men and women around the table when Rhodey came up to her sighing, "You are unbelievable."_

"_Oh, no!" Toni said guiltily, "Did they rope you into this?"_

"You would have turned up if you knew Rhodey was going to present you with it," Phil speculated confidently.

"Yes," Toni confirmed, "I'd still have ultimately done the same thing with the award in the end but I'd have gone to accept it in person.

"_Nobody roped me into anything!" Rhodey informed her as she apologised, "but they told me if I presented you with an award, you'd be deeply honoured."_

"_Of course I'd be deeply honoured," Toni recovered, "And it's you, that's great. So when do we do it?"_

"_It's right here," Rhodey said handing her the Apogee Award, "here you go!"_

"And if everyone just did that it would eliminate the need for lengthy awards ceremonies," Natasha said, "maybe not for something as high profile as the Oscars or the Nobel Peace Prize but for things like that."

"Both of those events are severely boring to be at trust me, I regularly get invitations to both," Toni scoffed.

"_There it is," Toni rambled, "that was easy! I'm so sorry."_

"_Yeah, it's okay," Rhodey said brushing off the apology._

"_Wow! Would you look at that?" she deadpanned handing the trophy to the woman standing next to her, "That's something else. I don't have any of those floating around."_

_She promptly grew bored with this charade and pushed some of her chips forward before shouting gleefully, "We're gonna let it ride!"_

"And Toni's lost interest in you know Rhodey," Clint told the movie picture of Toni's friend earning weird looks from the others as he didn't seem to realise he was talking an image of a person.

_Toni picked up the dice and held them out to the woman next to her, "Give me a hand, will you? Give me a little something-something." The woman neatly blew on her dice and Toni moved them back to Rhodey saying, "okay, you too." _

"_I'm not going to blow on your dice Toni," Rhodey said still mad at her for embarrassing him and when Toni insisted he simply pushed her hand away causing her to let go of the dice crying out, "There it is. Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes rolls! And…"_

"_Two craps. Line away," the dealer said as the dice came up snake's eyes._

"I'm guessing you're never using Rhodey as a good luck charm," Natasha speculated.

"For gambling?!" Toni scoffed, "no way. Unluckiest guy I know who isn't in this room."

This promptly stopped the retorts from the men in the room that they were definitely more unlucky that the Lieutenant Colonel after all that had happened to them in their lifespans however long or short those truly were.

"_That's what happens," Rhodey said smugly._

"_Worse things have happened," Toni said with a shrug, "I think we're going to be fine. Colour me up, will you?"_

_The pair was next seen walking through the halls of the casino followed by a security detail as Rhodey shook hands with Toni informing her, "this is where I exit."_

"_All right," Toni acknowledged._

"_Tomorrow, don't be late," Rhodey emphasised._

"_Yeah, you can count on it," Toni said in a monotone._

"_I'm serious!" Rhodey warned one final time before his departure._

"You're going to be late!" the room chorused and Toni smiled. At least that hadn't changed from her old self to her new self. She loved to be contrary and it seemed to part of her personality for even when she didn't intend to be circumstances made her actions seem that way.

"_I know, I know," Toni said not bothered at all before handing her Apogee award over to a tourist dressed as Caesar getting his picture taken, "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. There you go."_

"Of course you can quote sections of the Bible," Steve said wondering why he was surprised at the revelation. It was probably because Toni wasn't a part of the Christian faith but the genius read anything she could get her hands on unless she could predict it wouldn't be factually accurate. So the Bible would probably have been one of her earliest books,

_As she was being escorted to her car a young woman in a business suit came running up shouting, "Miss Stark! Excuse me, Miss Stark!" when she was stopped by the guards she merely kept talking, "Christine Everheart, Vanity Fair magazine. Can I ask you a couple of questions?"_

"That's _that _reporter," Phil said recognising her as the person who had prompted Toni into abandoning her alibi and openly admitting to being a superhero.

"_She's cute," Happy told Toni so she decided to turn and talk to the woman, "Hi!"_

"You only talk to reporters if they're cute!" Steve exclaimed.

"Used to, Steve, used to! You've stopped being objective again; it's becoming a problem. And yes I did because reporters annoyed me so much that was the only consolation for having to speak with them," Toni explained sharply.

"_Hi," Christine replied._

"_Yeah," Toni said._

"_It's okay?" Christine questioned to be absolutely sure._

"_Okay, go," Toni allowed._

"_You've been called the Da Vinci of our time," Christine began, "What do you say to that?"_

"Backhanded compliment so Toni's going to say something ridiculous," Natasha predicted.

"_Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint," Toni quipped._

"_And what do you say to your other nickname?" she continued spitefully, "'The Angel of Death'?" _

"_That's not bad," Toni told her._

"Wait, you thought that was a good thing!" Phil said confused.

"Look in legend avenging angels or Angels of Death are often portrayed as people who bring justice to those who have committed atrocities. That was my ultimate goal, to bring to justice the people in wars around the planet who were hurting American soldiers. They're also seen as guides; figures that light the way to the underworld and my inventions were seen as guiding people to peace. Yes, there are bad Angels of Death but they're more commonly referred to as Demons in any religion as the word Angel is inherently good without the word Fallen in front of it. Therefore I chose to take it as a compliment," Toni explained.

A stunned silence came over the room as the movie restarted. They hadn't even thought to look at the nickname in that way merely connecting the word 'death,' to its usual negative connotations.

"_Let me guess. Berkeley?" Toni said changing tack._

"_Brown, actually," Christine said not phased._

"_Well, Ms Brown," Toni began, "it's an imperfect world, but it's the only one we've got. I guarantee you the day that weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals."_

"Now you're just provoking her," Clint laughed.

"How did you know that?" Bruce said. He had also spotted the signs but had only expected Natasha and Phil to be the others who did. When did she get to know Clint so well?

"For a start Toni did a lot of funding for innovations for the healthcare service even back then especially for children," Clint replied, "that's common knowledge if you're in the right circles which Miss Everheart won't have been. And in tapes of Howard Stark he says the exact same thing. She's parroting him."

"_Rehearse that much?" Christine asked._

"_Every night in front of the mirror before bedtime," Toni lied._

"_I can see that," Christine admitted as Toni turned back to her usual habit of flirting, "I'd like to show you first hand."_

"_All I want is a serious answer," Christine said not willing to give in to Toni's charm._

"And now we get Toni giving Miss Everheart the bare facts of the situation," Bruce predicted.

"_Okay, here's serious. My old man had a philosophy, 'Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy,'" Toni explained._

Steve was taken aback by this because here was Toni talking openly of Howard to someone she had just met and that statement painted him in a rather alarming light. He knew his friend had changed from previous comments made about him; but how much exactly?

"_That's a great line coming from the girl selling the sticks," Christine said bitterly._

"She just said it wasn't her line," Natasha sighed exasperatedly.

"_My father helped defeat the Nazis," Toni said in a monotone with the only hint of emotion in it being of distaste at having to say this, "He worked on the Manhattan project. A lot of people, including your professors at Brown, would call that being a hero."_

"I purposefully never said I did and she really should have picked up on that when I ignored her insult of him except for another of my normal retorts," Toni pointed out.

"_And a lot of people would also call that war profiteering," Christine jibed as this was clearly her opinion on the subject._

"_Tell me," Toni began quickly removing her sunglasses, "do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs, military funding, honey."_

"Or funding by you alternatively," Clint interjected.

"Well, for that sort of thing I used the money I got from distributing the weaponry and I could still live off only the money I earned from that venture today and still be high up on the Fortune 500 list but I tend to funnel it into projects that do some good at home," Toni told him, "so it's still technically funded by a form of military."

"_You ever lose an hour of sleep your whole life?" Christine asked._

"Yes, frequently," Toni deadpanned, "that is when it's actually possible for me to get any sleep at all to be kept from it by things that I've seen."

"_I'd be prepared to lose a few with you," Toni said returning to flirting._

_The scene promptly flashed to the pair making out intensely on a bed in one of Toni's many suites which was so heated that the pair ended up rolling off the bed and onto the floor._

Clint wolf-whistled at the scene but the others were frankly too shocked by the image to reprimand him. To be honest knowing Toni swung both ways and seeing it in action just proved to be two completely different things.

**A/n: I did say no more genderbent characters and I'm keeping my word. Toni's dress can be viewed via a link on my profile**


	26. Journey To Afghanistan

Chapter 26 – Journey to Afghanistan

**A/n: Hello everyone :) Glad you enjoyed the previous chapter and I hope you find this one just as good.**

**youwannabekate: So would I! It would be a completely priceless moment. My love of facts came through for that bit but I'm glad the information is good. It might take them a while and the elephant may gain a second tutu during that time. Toni's reluctant to talk about Howard at all and Steve's still trying to fit in Toni's offhand comments into his own image of Howard. Kisses, Karma :)  
**

**Booklover2526: I'm glad it was awesome :D Well I can't have anything against people who are bisexual as I'm pansexual which is similar but not quite the same. And yes they do have an overwhelming lack of representation which is why a lot of my characters end up bi. **

**Ashtree1165: I always update soon and that sounds like what I do at night because I just read stories instead of sleeping**

**FallenDownTheRabbitHole: Hello new reviewer! /waves/ Anyway I'm glad you love it and hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**paisley15: Yay, coming from you I am taking that as a big compliment. Yeah, I really don't like Christine Everheart much because she ignores Tony on several occasions, when he says he's not his company, in that scene, etc…**

**ReadPaxJoy: Thank you very much. Glad you love it**

**TheGiggleMonster: Yeah, well my idea is that he was essentially a better person originally but gradually became worse over the years culminating in neglect of Toni/Tony. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he will be in it.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Iron Man is going to be very Steve heavy but hopefully he'll stop making insensitive ones soon /yup/ I couldn't resist the wolf whistle.**

**skywright: That was always going to happen and I don't have the time to check it over really. And some of those his' are probably not related to Toni because gender pronouns in a sentence can be read several different ways. I don't deny some of them will be mistakes though.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I watch the movies so often that the little things are what catch my eyes. Plus with subtitles you don't need to focus on making out what they're saying as much. A lot :D But feel free to say it again 3 Hahaha :) Flustering people = :D **

Toni was finding the results of this scene hilarious. She was pretty sure that Clint's eyes were glazed over and Steve kept opening and shutting his mouth as if meaning to say something but not being able to force it out. The rest of the group didn't seem all that bothered for obvious reasons but the reactions of those two were more than enough to keep Toni amused. Especially since Steve's cheeks were steadily growing redder and redder as he blushed at the mere sight of Toni sleeping with another woman.

_Later on a dishevelled and undressed Christine was the only one in the bed lying underneath the covers somewhat tastefully. Toni was nowhere to be seen._

"You left as soon as she fell asleep didn't you," Bruce said sympathetically realising that with Toni's extreme case of insomnia in which her brain kept her awake until she literally dropped she would find it uncomfortable to stay in the room with a sleeping fling.

"Pretty much yeah," Toni said sadly, "most of them don't really care anyway and the ones that do just get offended. Not like I can help it as they'd think watching them sleep was creepy. Just can't win with these people."

Steve gave her a look which was akin to pity. He hadn't realised quite how empty those one night stands had left Toni feeling. Sure she played them up in public and was blatantly unabashed when asked about them but it was clear that they actually affected her more than she let on. He supposed it could be the knowledge that none of them really wanted her specifically.

_Suddenly the lights powered on and JARVIS began to speak causing Christine's eyes to jolt open in shock, "Good morning! It's 7:00 am. The weather in Malibu is 72 degrees with scattered clouds," here JARVIS powered up the windows stopping them from projecting blackness into the room and revealing the ocean view, "The surf conditions are fair with waist-to-shoulder high lines. High tide will be at 10:52 am."_

"I still remember the first time I heard JARVIS talking," Natasha recalled, "I knew Toni had an AI as it was one of the few things that weren't wiped from the file as it's kind of common knowledge. But I didn't know the scale!"

_Christine wrapped one of the bed sheets around herself and walked towards the window which was displaying all sorts of data about the weather conditions that JARVIS hadn't articulated. As the shot zoomed backwards it revealed a mansion that was hanging off the side of a cliff. The whole thing appeared to glow in the Malibu sunlight as it was purely made out of glass and white materials with the only flicker of colour being the swimming pool. As the words 'Malibu, California,' were displayed on the screen._

"Why don't you live there full time?" Clint said practically drooling over the sight of the mansion. It was pretty incredible architecturally.

"I get bored if I'm on one place for too long," Toni informed him, "but until I moved to New York almost fulltime that was my most permanent residence. It's by far one of the most pleasant of my houses."

"How many houses do you own Friend Toni?" Thor asked.

"I don't know the exact number but it was over thirty the last time I thought to check," Toni said after contemplating the question briefly.

"You don't know how many houses you have," Bruce said disbelievingly.

"People keep attempting to bribe me to do one of three things, 1) Go back into the weapon's business, 2) hand over the plans to the Iron Man suit and the arc reactor and 3) give them majority shares in my company. I am willing to do none of these things but as these people try to pass their bribes off as 'gifts' they can't take them back without looking suspicious and some of them have been known to give me their summer homes which I usually end up rebuilding on the site."

_Christine walked through the house having pulled on a pair of underwear and a designer shirt both of which probably actually belonged to Toni. "Toni?" she called out as she walked out into a lounge area, "hey, Toni?"_

"One of the few who actually came looking for me," Toni acknowledged, "I quite liked her fire but she's sometimes not a very pleasant person. Then again I can't really talk as I'm sometimes not a very nice person either."

_She walked around for a while examining all of the art that Toni had up on the walls when she came across an access panel to one of the lower levels. She contemplated her next move for a moment before reaching out and touching the dial on the panel._

"Bad idea," the Avengers shouted along with Phil, "they'd had bad experiences with some of Toni's traps which stopped people who weren't authorised getting into her labs.

"Didn't build anything nasty into them until I got back from Afghanistan," Toni informed the group.

_The door access device flashed red and beeped loudly causing Christine to jump back, "you are not authorised to access this area," JARVIS informed her dangerously. _

"_Jesus," Christine said backing away._

"_That's JARVIS. He runs the house," Piper said from behind her. He was dressed in a sharp business suit but the image of professionalism was somewhat ruined by the dry cleaning bag that he carried._

The others looked at Toni to see how she would react to seeing a version of Piper for this first time since she had broken up with him but she didn't even flinch. Toni didn't seem to mind seeing Piper in the films which was probably a relief as they had a feeling that she would mind a lot of the rest of it.

"_I've got your clothes here. They've been dry-cleaned and pressed," Piper continued clearly unimpressed with Christine, "and there's a car waiting for you outside that will take you anywhere you'd like to go."_

"Efficient," Clint said, "I'll give him that," he hadn't been particularly fond of Piper because the first time he had met the Avengers (excluding Natasha) he had apparently hated them on sight for no apparent reason. Clint could of course now guess with almost 100% accuracy that it was because he was jealous of how well they could relate to the 'new' Toni.

"_You must be the famous Piper Potts," Christine reasoned as she walked towards him._

"_Indeed I am," Piper confirmed._

"_After all these years, Toni still has you picking up the dry-cleaning," Christine said taking the bag containing her clothes._

"She's attempting to claim superiority over Piper on the virtue that she slept with me," Toni laughed, "I'm pretty sure that Piper would pretty far down in the business if everyone I've slept with outranked him."

"_I do anything and everything Miss Stark requires," Piper said in a perfectly pleasant voice, "including, occasionally, taking out the trash. Will that be all?"_

"Yeah Piper has clearly spent too much time hanging around with you," Natasha acknowledged, "That was a good dig at Miss Everheart."

_Back in the lab Toni was working on the engine of one of her classic cars with blaring rock music in the background that would probably deafen anybody else who came into the room. In the background Piper could be seen beginning to walk down the stairs just as Toni began to scan the engine telling JARVIS, "give me an exploded view."_

"I have a feeling you're delaying something for your beloved cars again," Natasha predicted.

"There is no reason not to blow something off for a car okay. Cars are works of pure machinery, everything has its place and if you want maximum horsepower and efficiency without any natural under or oversteer then you need to keep them there. And making changes to a car like a Bugatti Veyron to make it go even faster than it could already is a thrill of the highest order. I like thrills. Hence I love cars," Toni said passionately.

"_The compression in cylinder three appears to be low," JARVIS informed her bringing the schematic of it up on a screen._

"_Log that," she told the AI distractedly reaching for something else as Piper entered the room shutting down the music and talking on his phone, "please don't turn down my music!"_

"You didn't even turn around and that music was loud until it was switched off," Steve said incredulously.

"I don't like people sneaking up on me now but I had that before I went to Afghanistan," Toni told him, "it was far from the first kidnapping I went through. I'm the daughter of a billionaire after all."

"_I'll keep you posted," Piper closed the phone call before turning to Toni, "You are supposed to be halfway around the world right now."_

"You were putting off flying to somewhere halfway across the world to work on a car," Clint said in a monotone, "what worries me is that I can actually believe that you would do that."

"I prefer my workshop to public appearances any day," Toni said simply.

"_How'd she take it?" Toni diverted._

"_Like a champ," Piper replied with a slightly bitter tone to his voice._

"_Why are you trying to hustle me out of here?" Toni asked still absorbed in her project. _

"_Your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago," Piper told her disapprovingly. _

"_That's funny, I thought with it being my plane and all that it would just wait for me to get there" Toni retorted._

"That is actually a fair point," Natasha acknowledged, "I'll give you that one even if it does make things inconvenient for air traffic control."

"Yeah, well the people I've met in ATC are thoroughly unpleasant so I took great pleasure in making things inconvenient for them," Toni said haughtily.

"_Toni, I need to speak to you about a couple of things before I get you out of the door," Piper sighed._

"Knew me so well even back then," Toni laughed although it had a bitter quality to it.

"_I mean doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane," Toni continued moving to sit on the wheel arch of the car, "if it departs before you arrive."_

"_Larry called. He's got another buyer for the Jackson Pollock in the wings. Do you want it? Yes or no," Piper said having grown used to Toni's attempts at misdirection over the years. _

"Which subject are they discussing now? The changes are rather abrupt," Thor queried but the others figured the rest of the conversation would answer his question and so didn't tell Toni to give him a reply.

"_Is it a good representation of his spring period?" Toni asked._

"_No," Piper explained, "The Springs was actually the neighbourhood in East Hampton where he lived and worked," here Toni interrupted with a 'so' which indicated that she probably already knew this, "not 'spring like the season. I think it's a fair example. I think it's incredibly overpriced."_

"_I need it," Toni said with a blank expression springing to her feet, "Buy it. Store it. _

"Why do you need an overpriced painting?" Steve asked puzzled.

"I buy the painting and put it in storage, it leaks out that I consider it worthy enough to have a copy and the prices shoot up. Once I have enough paintings of the same artist I auction them off, the price goes through the roof and all the proceeds go to charity," Toni told him, "I've been running things like that for years.

"_Okay," Piper said with a smile, "The MIT commencement speech…"_

"_Is in June. Please don't harangue me about stuff that's way, way, down…" Toni interrupted clearly not interested in what Piper was now talking about._

"_Well they're haranguing me, so I'm gonna say yes," Piper informed her._

"And he just accepts thing on your behalf," Bruce said incredulously. Toni never let anyone order her around even if it was for her own good.

"He knew I was just going to agree to it eventually so it cuts out all the middle bickering," Toni replied.

"_Well deflect it and absorb it. Don't transmit it back to me," Toni said grabbing herself a cup of coffee._

"I guess hacking policies do work elsewhere," Steve said finding this comment amusing.

"_I need you to sign this before you get on the plane," Piper said opening a file that she was holding._

"_What are you trying to get rid of me for?" Toni said in a teasing voice, "What, you got plans?"_

"_As a matter of fact I do," Piper told her._

"_I don't like it when you have plans," Toni said although she was still clearly teasing._

"So the banter has been around for a while then," Clint observed.

"Practically since I hired him," Toni confirmed.

"_I'm allowed to have plans of my birthday," Piper deadpanned clearly thinking she had forgotten._

"_Yes," Toni acknowledged, "and that's why your present is waiting back at your penthouse and I've given you full access to the accounts today as usual. Enjoy!"_

"That is one hell of a birthday present," Natasha said with a wolf-whistle, "and now I'm having sneaking suspicions about where that Alexander McQueen dress came from on my last birthday."

"I saw you eyeing it and it's not like it even lightly grazes my income," Toni said with a shrug.

"_You actually remembered," Piper said stunned._

"_Yeah, it's kind of strange. Turns out it's the same day as last year," Toni said feigning shock._

"Even when you're being nice you needed to come up with a retort," Bruce laughed. He didn't get why Toni thought she hadn't had good motives back then. And that everyone else seemed to believe that the philanthropist part of her title was just for show as the socialite part clearly was. She was giving endless money to charities back before Afghanistan and before the arc reactor. So, she was inherently a good person even if she sometimes thought otherwise.

"_Well then, thank you Miss Stark," Piper said recovering._

"_You're welcome, Mr Potts," Toni replied with that she drained the last of her coffee and exited the room with a quick, "okay."_

"You never signed that form," Clint pointed out.

"Piper forges my signature more often than I write it myself. And in light of events that occurred after this I doubt the company were worried about whatever was on that form," Toni explained.

_Another of Toni's sports cars sped down a road with a black car in hot pursuit. The silver Audi drew to a stop and Toni emerged laughing as Rhodey looked on angrily. "You're good," Toni laughed, "I thought I lost you back there."_

"_You did, ma'am," Happy informed her removing her luggage from the boot of his car, "I had to cut across Mulholland."_

"_Ah," Toni exclaimed, "I got you. I got you."_

Steve idly wondered why Toni was speeding when her parents had died in a car accident. Surely that should have put her off.

"_What's wrong with you?" Rhodey shouted as the pair made their way over to the plane._

"_What?" Toni questioned._

"_Three hours," Rhodey stated._

"_I got caught doing a piece for Vanity Fair," Toni said giving him a half-truth._

Thor frowned. The more he was watching this the more he noticed similarities between his brother and his teammate. So why had his brother turned out so bad while Toni had managed to become one of Midgard's mightiest heroes?

"_For three hours," Rhodey reiterated as Toni climbed the steps to the plane, "for three hours you kept me standing here."_

"_Waiting on you now," Toni told him as she walked past him, "Let's go. Come on! Wheels up, rock and roll."_

_In the next shot the Stark Industries plane was in the air and cutlery was being laid out by one of the air hostesses whilst Rhodey tried to focus on his paper._

"And Toni's going to start a conversation now," Bruce predicted confidently.

"_What you reading, platypus?" Toni began._

"_Nothing," Rhodey deflected._

"_Come on, sour patch," Toni teased, "Don't be mad."_

"Sometimes you make it very easy to be mad at you," Steve decided to interject here which wasn't the best thing in the world he could have said but apparently wasn't bad enough to merit a Natasha glare.

"_I told you, I'm not mad. I'm indifferent, okay?" Rhodey insisted weakly. _

"_I said I was sorry," Toni pointed out as another air hostess approached, "Good morning, Miss Stark."_

"_I told him I was sorry…" Toni pointed out as Rhodey kept rambling on about being indifferent to anything Toni could do anymore._

"_Hot towel?" the air hostess offered clearly used to escapades like this on her flights with Stark Industries._

"I'm starting to think those air hostesses are slightly crazy for taking that job," Bruce joked.

"Probably," Toni said not bothered by the comment, "but they also chose the job because of its benefits. Well, that's the most likely reason."

"_You don't respect yourself so I know you don't respect me," Rhodey told Toni to round up his speech._

"_I respect you," Toni deadpanned._

"_I'm just your babysitter," Rhodey continued regardless, "So, you know when you need your diaper changed…" the air hostess handed him a hot towel here, "thank you. Let me know and I'll get you a bottle, okay?"_

Steve frowned at this comment. Even he knew that Toni didn't like it when people acted like she was being totally irresponsible when acting on misgivings. Maybe if she'd been a little later in arriving in Afghanistan (which is where he assumed she was going) whatever awful deeds were going to be acted upon her after that point would have never happened.

"_Hey! Heat up the sake, will you?" Toni said turning to another air hostess completely ignoring Rhodey's last statement, "thanks for reminding me."_

"_No, I'm not talking about…" Rhodey scrambled to say, "we're not drinking. We're working right now."_

"Since when did that ever stop me," Toni said with a smirk. She figured she was going to need a few drinks to get her over this movie. And preferably they would be given to her whilst it was still playing.

"_You can't have sashimi without sake," Toni insisted._

"_You are constitutionally incapable of being responsible," Rhodey snapped._

The rest of the Avengers flinched along with Steve this time because that had been a low blow considering all that Toni did for him and his military compatriots as well as for charities.

"_It would be irresponsible not to drink. I'm just talking about a nightcap," Toni told him._

"_Hot sake?" the air hostess asked._

"_Yes, two, please," Toni said but Rhodey wasn't backing down just yet, "No. I'm not drinking. I don't want any."_

"That was never going to work out around Toni," Natasha pointed out, "she even talked me into having drinks whilst on the job and that's technically against SHIELD policy unless the situation is absolutely essential."

"I guess it's a good thing for you we're leaving SHIELD then," Phil said dropping a bombshell on those who hadn't known that had even been discussed let alone decided on.

**A/n: I think my obsessive love of cars came through a bit in one of the sections. I'm a female car geek and I don't give a damn :D Did anyone else wonder why Tony **_**needed **_**a painting? No, just me then. And yes, they officially have decided to quit SHIELD!**


	27. The Jericho

Chapter 27 – The Jericho

**A/n: Hey y'all, not much to say here other than I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

**youwannabekate: Screw them indeed, and Coulson will be fine :) They'll be the same length as the movie so in some cases not long enough for heavy angst but I might throw some more in as a freebie. Poor Steve; and it's a possibility. **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: They had to leave eventually :D It's a huge plot point for the sequel(s). Well, I think they are and he's spent enough time around both now that it's similarity spotting time.**

**Tranquillity's Chaos: Have an update. And I'm glad you like Toni **

**fiction reading chick: Give me a second, it'll be in this chapter**

**paisley15: Yay! ~#does happy dance because you liked it#~ I'm pretty sure he did more than quadruple it because his father was a billionaire too from his work and Tony is considered to have eclipsed his father by a lot. **

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: The one thing I really suck at is art so I didn't take it beyond my second year of high school. And GCSE's you're in the same part of the world as me then. Yeah, but I was struck by inspiration because she said 'need,' not 'want.'**

**Dragones: Your wish is my command :D  
**

**Booklover2526: Yeah, I like dropping bombshells on people. What can I say?**

**whitetigerwolf: Damn, I now have a Natasha/Toni plot bunny following me around. I sense another parallel story coming out of this.**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad!  
**

"You're finally leaving," Toni said with a smile glad that Natasha had been able to successfully talk Phil around to the idea. She was even more thrilled that he was the one who brought it up because it meant he was fully on-board with the idea and wasn't just following Clint and Natasha's example. The others still seemed to be suffering from shock due to the announcement.

"No offense Phil," Steve said carefully considering each word before he spoke for once, "but what would you do after quitting SHIELD? Toni mentioned she's hired Natasha as her PA and I know Clint would be happy just being on the Avengers but…"

"Already sorted that out," Toni informed the group, "hooked up three contracts hiring you for Stark Industries on the off chance that Tasha would talk Phil into leaving. Natasha, I've officially recalled your Natalie Rushman identity and I've made some upgrades so your story is more airtight than it was before. You're now officially back as my PA and are unofficially acting as my 'bodyguard,' whilst I'm outside the suit. Clint, you've been hired to the testing facility so you can test all of the newest SI products and Phil I've put you in my liaison department so you'll be acting as the Avengers handler which disconnects us completely from SHIELD. It also gives me a reason to work extensively on improving our equipment for Stark Industries is now the official sponsor of the Avengers."

"Typical Annie," Natasha laughed, "you already have everything figured out."

"Just sign on the dotted line…" Toni joked handing over the contracts for the trio to look at.

"_That's what I'm talking about," Rhodey slurred waving the bottle which contained the sake in the air as he leaned on Toni._

"Knew he wouldn't be able to resist your alcohol," Clint said not looking up from the contract. His lips were quirking into a smile at some of the little details Toni had worked into it.

"_When I get up in the morning and I'm putting on my uniform," Rhodey rambled on, "you know what I recognise?" Toni herself looked thoroughly bored with this conversation as she sipped at her own drink, "I see in that mirror that every person that's got this uniform on got my back!"_

_The shot drew backwards to reveal that the air hostesses had changed into outfits that were much more skimpy than their formal attire and were dancing around as Toni replied, "Hey, you know what? I'm not like you. I'm not cut out…"_

"Toni," Bruce said sadly. He didn't know Toni's exact reasoning for saying that but he suspected it had something to do with Rhodey's military affiliation and how he had high levels of loyalty and courage due to that affiliation. She seemed to have lacked the initiative to think about herself and realise that with a little push she would have those qualities in abundance as she did now.

"_No, no. You don't have to be like me! But you're more than what you are," Rhodey exclaimed nonsensically._

As the others laughed at how Rhodey had sunk so far into drunkenness that he couldn't even string together a sentence properly Toni considered the benefits of drunken wisdom. Rhodey had been right after all; she had untapped potential that Afghanistan had awakened in her but it didn't encourage her to do the things that Rhodey thought it would. He had been horrified when she had abandoned her military contracts. She never could make people happy through her actions.

"_Can you excuse me if I'm just a little bit distracted here?" Toni deflected pointing to the air hostesses who were now dancing around a pole that had risen up through the plane. _

"Only you Toni," the group chorused causing Toni to flash them a wide grin. She liked being unique.

"_No! You can't be distracted right now!" Rhodey shouted, "Listen to me!" But Toni wasn't planning on being lectured as one of the air hostesses dragged to her feet causing her to laugh and go over to dance._

"It's pointless arguing with Toni when she doesn't agree with you at least partially," Natasha said earning a glare from Toni. She did argue with people when she didn't agree with them at all. They just didn't result in a particularly long argument that was all.

_When the plane landed it was on an airfield where soldiers were running back and forth running drills and following orders. Toni made her way down the steps now in the outfit of pure professionalism she had been wearing in the first moments of the film. _

The others were not pleased to say this as they were now almost 100% positive that after this scene they would be shown Toni in captivity and it didn't bear thinking about. She was a civilian, not a super soldier or an assassin. Just a civilian.

"_General," she said pleasantly once she reached the assembled group._

"_Welcome, Miss Stark," the General said shaking her hand, "We look forward to your weapons presentation."_

"_Thanks!" Toni said before slipping neatly into Arabic as she greeted the rest of the soldiers shaking each of their hands in turn._

"I don't even want to know how many languages you speak," Steve stated, "I have a feeling it would give me a headache."

"_Is it better to be feared or respected?" Toni stiltedly beginning her presentation, "And I say, is it too much to ask for both? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries' Freedom Line. It's the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology. They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once."_

"You didn't believe a single word you were saying," Bruce said not even bothering to phrase it as a question. He could tell from her tone and the fact that her body language was as stiff as it could possibly be. And he just didn't understand why she deluded herself into thinking that a few mistakes made her a bad person. It just didn't make sense.

"_That's how dad did it," Toni said uncomfortably, "that's how America does it. And it's working out pretty well so far. Find an excuse," Toni said pointing to a missile launcher that was positioned to her left, "to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves."_

Toni flinched at her past self mentioning caves. She didn't like caves anymore; they were too dark, too damp and there was always someone waiting around a corner. Caves and pain went together hand in hand and nobody would ever convince her otherwise.

_She waved her hand neatly and the missile systems powered up as the soldiers turned to look at it. The one in the middle flew off at high speed leaving a trail of white smoke in the sky behind it. Once it was in the air the main casing was blasted off by a controlled explosion releasing as many as twenty miniaturised missiles._

"I'm not a big fan of the weapons development industry but I have to admit that's fairly impressive," Natasha said with a low whistle.

"Well there are none left in the world as far as I know," Toni said uncomfortable with the praise for the device that had caused so much pain and suffering to her and to others… Yinsen.

_As the mini missiles fell they let off a sound like a high-pitched whistle as Toni reached the conclusion of her speech, "for your consideration, the Jericho."_

_The instant she finished speaking the missiles made contact with the mountains behind her and a line of explosions flew high into the sky as the gale force wind that was created by the high velocity impact carried the smoke from those same explosions towards the group. As it reached them most of the soldiers were relieved of their hats as Toni just stood there arms outstretched letting the effects of the explosion wash over her._

Thor thought that Toni had never looked more powerful than in that moment where she just let go and didn't let her environment touch her. Yet she didn't have any powers and back then she didn't even have her suit. So what made her so comfortable with something like that?

_Once she had finished with her presentation Toni made a beeline for a chilled container with the SI logo printed on it. It turned out that this contained different varieties of alcohol as well as different types of glasses to put it in._

"I needed the drink after making that speech okay," Toni defended seeing Steve's judgemental look. Honestly they were going to have to have another conversation about past actions at this rate.

"_I'll be throwing one of these in with every purchase of 500 million or more," Toni informed them retrieving the drink that she had been consuming in the opening scene and raising it, "to peace!"_

"Oh god," Natasha muttered. She knew the basics of what would happen to Toni next and she didn't truly wish to know more about what had happened in Afghanistan even if it would satisfy her natural curiosity.

_As she sipped her drink her phone buzzed and she flipped it open to show Obie on the screen who greeted her with a quick, "Toni."_

"_Obie, what are you doing up?" she asked curiously._

There was a brief break here as everyone attempted to explain time differences to Thor. It took a few comparisons to things that he already knew about to get him to understand but eventually Thor seemed to get why it was strange that Obie was calling Toni from America when it was daytime in Afghanistan.

"_Well I couldn't sleep till I found out how it went. How'd it go?" Obie informed her._

"_It went great. Looks like it's gonna be an early Christmas," Toni told him._

"_Hey!" Obie exclaimed clearly pleased, "Way to go, my girl! I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"_

Bruce flinched upon hearing Obie say this because if his suspicions were correct then there was no way that Obadiah would be seeing Toni the day after this.

"_Why aren't you wearing those pyjamas I got you?" Toni quipped._

"_Good night, Toni," Obie concluded as Toni hung up on him climbing into the Humvee which contained the soldiers who would eventually die due to the terrorist attack._

The entire room was stiff and on the edge of their seats aside from Toni who just wanted all of this to end. Why did Amora have to butt into her life and show everybody else? It was going to earn her pity; she hated pity, in fact she preferred nearly being murdered to being pitied.

"_Hey, Toni," Rhodey said walking up to the Humvee._

"_I'm sorry," Toni joked, "this is the 'fun-vee.' The 'hum-drum-vee,' is back there."_

_Sensing that Toni was messing with him again Rhodey simply sighed at her, "nice job."_

"_See you back at base," Toni said as the engine of the car roared into life and the screen switched to a shot of the Humvees making their way down the dirt track once more with 'Back In Black,' blaring out._

And that was the final nail in the coffin for the hopes of the Avengers that they would have some more time before they had to see Toni deal with being held captive in such a highly injured state. Plus the fact that being a woman in captivity was arguably always more risky especially when all your captors were men but they couldn't dwell on possibilities right now.

_Suddenly the first explosion was displayed again as a blurry picture of Toni conscious on an operating table with only wearing bandages over her chest was displayed._

"You never told me you were awake for this," Phil said horrified. How could she live her life remembering that moment and not want to break down? For that matter surely there would be residual pain from everything that had happened during the surgery.

"Yes, well, you know terrorists," Toni deadpanned, "they're not really interested in using anaesthetic to get rid of the pleasure they get by torturing their captives."

Natasha's eyes had darkened significantly and it looked like she was about ready to fly off to Afghanistan and kill every last one of the people who were involved in the torture of her friend.

Toni had shut her eyes and hoped that the sound wouldn't be too graphic. She didn't need another flashback to happen. She thought she had finally managed to rid herself of the things outside of her nightmares. But she didn't sleep often enough for those to be of a huge amount of concern to her.

_The screen showed something being removed from Toni's chest wound as she screamed out in pain. One of the men surrounding her lowered a metal cylinder towards her chest as what appeared to be a primitive version of the arc reactor was placed there following it._

The group flinched collectively as Toni kept her eyes firmly shut, she didn't want to see this. She couldn't live through it. Not again! Never again! Why?!

_Finally once the surgery was over they knocked Toni out with what was probably chloroform so she fell into the bliss of utter unconsciousness._

The group suddenly realised what Toni had meant exactly about the terrorists wanting to cause her as much pain as possible because it wasn't that the place was too primitive to have the anaesthetics. It was that the refused to use them for Toni's benefit. Toni cracked open her eyes hearing the screams fade and looked into the enraged faces of her team members and suddenly felt that the men of the Ten Rings were lucky to be dead.

_The next time Toni woke up she was lying on a cot in a room in the cave with walls lined with electronics. She wore a nasal capula now and the bandages and jacket had been placed back on her fully but she still looked like someone who was being humiliated through a state of undress._

"How…?" Natasha began haltingly, "how much does the arc reactor hurt you?"

"It's not generally beneficial to my health let's put it that way," Toni said attempting not to give a real answer but one look at the faces of the team and she knew that wouldn't cut it, "to get it in they had to cut out sections of my muscle and it puts a significant amount of pressure on my lungs. I can't lie on my stomach for any amount of time anymore as it starts hurting fairly quickly."

Steve was wondering how he had managed to be so wrong about Toni. Clearly she wasn't a privileged rich kid who had destroyed her father's legacy. And truthfully he had known that since the Battle for Manhattan but didn't know how to reconcile it with the Toni he met in Stuttgart.

_Toni's breaths came out pained and ragged as she reached up to pull the capula from her nose deciding that anything that kept her in the bed wasn't a good thing._

"Toni," Bruce said softly but Toni quickly interrupted him, "I know now and I knew back then that I shouldn't have done that until I knew what it was for precisely but I was in constant pain and I knew I'd been kidnapped. For all I knew they were pumping harmful drugs around my system instead of oxygen." She had a point so Bruce conceded his rant about her disregard for her own health for the inevitable next time she did something reckless in these movies.

_She reached out for a vessel containing some sort of liquid on a cabinet nearby but her weak efforts at reaching it only succeeded in knocking it to the ground spilling its contents. She coughed several times each one sounding more painful than the last as she spotted the doctor who had been working on her humming as he shaved._

"He was used to being in captivity by then," Toni said before anyone said anything bad about the man who had turned her into who she was today, "so don't start yelling at him for keeping some form of a routine in his life."

_Toni leaned over to see if she could get off the cot but wires connected to some sort of battery became taught and she stopped moving abruptly._

"Tell me you weren't," Clint said nervously.

_She neatly rolled back and spotted the battery overcome by shock as she began to pull of the bandages frantically wanting to see what had happened to her leaving only just enough to preserve what little modesty she had left. Her breaths became more and more panicked and difficult to take in as she pulled them away sufficiently enough that the crude electromagnet was displayed still surrounded by dry blood._

The sight of the device made Bruce want to throw up. How had Toni managed to cope with something that horrible polluting her system? He had no doubt that it was sending feedback into her system and he hoped it didn't take her long to get out so she could make the arc reactor.

_Later on Yinsen was cooking what little food was provided for them over the fire as Toni zipped up a hoodie that had been left for her to use. "What the hell did you do to me?" Toni asked hoping there was a good reason for his actions._

"_What I did?" Yinsen chuckled, "What I did was to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there's a lot left and it's headed into your atrial septum."_

"Her what?" Steve asked confused.

"Her heart Steve," Bruce said quietly.

"_Here, want to see?" Yinsen said shaking a container which obviously had bits of shrapnel in it, "I have a souvenir. Take a look," with that he tossed it to Toni who caught it neatly and turned it around looking at the pieces with a sort of morbid fascination._

"You have more of those in your chest," Natasha said her voice noticeably choked.

"Yes," Toni stated plainly not willing to tell her how close her scans revealed that one piece was. It had ended up lodged in her aorta but scar tissue had developed around it and it would be ill advised to ever try and remove it from there.

"_I've seen many wounds like that in my village," Yinsen said more seriously, "We call them the walking dead because it takes about a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs."_

"_What is this?" Toni inquired._

"_That is an electromagnet," Yinsen informed her, "hooked up to a car battery, and it's keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart."_

Natasha truly felt that she might throw up if she was forced to watch too much more of this. All Amora was achieving in Natasha's view was getting the team closer together and breaking their loyalties to SHIELD. That and making Natasha want to go to SHIELD headquarters and murder her before handing in her notice.

_Toni's eyes darted to a camera in the corner of the room and Yinsen turned to see what she was looking at before saying jokingly, "That's right. Smile," before reverting back to his serious tone, "we met once you know, at a technical conference in Bern."_

"_I don't remember much about that conference," Toni admitted._

"_No, you wouldn't," Yinsen said amused, "If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits." As he spoke Toni was taking in her surroundings clearly looking for ways to escape._

"That was a bad weekend," Toni gave as the only explanation for why she had been drinking so much that she couldn't remember an entire conference.

"_Where are we?" Toni said quick to attempt to get information about her surroundings from the only other person she had._

_Yinsen was about to reply when a shutter on the door was slid open and a shout in Arabic came through making him stop instantly._

**A/n: Another cliffie that isn't a cliffie :D And I'm writing a sort of character study on Toni related to this story that may be up soon if anyone is interested in reading it.**


	28. I Refuse

Chapter 28 – I Refuse

**A/n: What is it with you guys and these 'cliffies?' They're not even cliffies /lol/. Seeing as people are interested I will put up the character study. And I'm finding it extremely amusing the Jeremy Renner (Clint) is in a film that just came out starring opposite Gemma Arterton (Toni).**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Please, it's not life any 'cliffie,' lasts very long when you update every day :D There's going to be a huge amount of shock going around I can guarantee that.**

**youwannabekate: That sounds like me to be honest. For some morbid reason I really like inflicting angst on my favourite characters be it canon or fanon. Maybe it's because after that people actually see them for how awesome they are generally. Haha, Doctor Who catchphrases. I can deal with morbid :D **

**ReadPaxJoy: Ooookay! Is this supposed to be a good thing or not? /lol/ Thank you :) **

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Not even a real cliffie /shrugs/ Yeah, Tasha's an assassin but she's a friend too. Well her ulterior motive is an attempt to tear the team apart so she can take over.**

**paisley15: And it will probably be just the headcanon discussion we had in a more ordered format. I always forget about Thor and then I'm like hang on Thor is here so he gets the next comment; I try my best :) Thank you for your review on The Iron Façade as well, I'm glad you liked it**

**4n6gurl: I can't help it if it's 4:30 am and my insomnia is finally letting up so I stop typing can I :D Enjoy!**

**Maeleana: It probably will but it'll only worsen it first /sorryI'mnotsorry/ **

**Dragones: I'll put it up whenever I get it finished :) **

**Ashtree1165: Yeah, Mark Ruffalo is Bruce Banner. Just saying, sorry other people who have played Bruce. It's like you can't replace RDJ as Tony. But the Hulk movie isn't in this story for partly that reason and partly another concept that I came up with which comes into play near the end of this story.**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad**

**skywright: I'm glad you liked the missile scene as I always saw it as quite symbolic and I've read a few of these myself and always wondered why nobody went into it. I figured if anyone was to notice it would be Thor who is entirely comfortable with the forces of nature himself. **

**Post U Later: Thank you for all of your reviews :) Don't want to take up too much space here replying to them all. **

"I don't want to watch this," Bruce said quietly to himself. It didn't matter to him if the others heard him because he knew they would agree with him. Especially Toni. It must have been horrific for her to live these moments once and now she had to relive them. He had noticed her eyes kept shutting whenever she knew anything particularly traumatic was coming up and he almost wanted to close his too. But that would in some ways be disrespectful to Toni. She had the right to not suffer through this again but after all she had done for them he thought she was overdue some compassion over what had happened to her. But first he had to know what had happened.

"_Stand up," Yinsen hissed pulling Toni roughly to her feet as the bolts on the door clicked open, "come on, put your hands up."_

_Toni didn't question Yinsen's order because she had figured out that it was important for her to do as he said in this situation. She neatly folded her hands behind her head just as Yinsen had as the door swung open._

Just when Toni thought the room couldn't have any more tension in it without someone choking on it the atmosphere seemed to thicken even more. She didn't see how it was possible and why were they getting this angry on her behalf? This was over and done with and she was attempting to stop it from affecting her now it was in the past.

"_Those are my guns. How did they get my guns?" Toni said panicked as one of the leaders of the group entered flanked by two armed soldiers._

"You really were horrified that your weapons had ended up in the wrong hands," Steve realised his voice faltering in the middle of the sentence. He had a feeling that he had another flaw that he had never acknowledged until now and that was that he judged people too quickly based on the first impression he got of them. Toni was so much more than what she appeared to be on a frankly terrifying level. It was like she was two different people existing in the same body. Wasn't there a name for that nowadays? But Steve didn't really think that Toni had a medical condition; she was just a very good actress.

"_Do you understand me? Do as I do," Yinsen said quickly trying to stop Toni talking as yet more soldiers came into the room as the leader continued to walk forward beginning to speak in Arabic._

"Why don't we have subtitles for this anymore?" Natasha asked, "did they turn off because we changed movie?"

"No," Toni told her, "Yinsen translated for me even if I didn't need it. So JARVIS didn't feel the need to put on subtitles for this section of the movie. I'm sure if someone isn't around to translate he'll resume his use of them."

"That is correct Miss Stark," JARVIS informed the group before playing the movie again.

_Toni's expression darkened noticeably as the man spoke before he gestured to Yinsen for a translation, "He says 'Welcome Toni Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America.'"_

"Even I know that isn't true," Toni scoffed although the term mass murderer had gotten to her at the time but seeing as she never actually was behind the weapon when it killed someone up to that point she now knew that she hadn't been a mass murderer when she went into that cave. When she came out however that was a different matter.

_The man spoke again and Yinsen translated it to, "He is honoured."_

_The only word of the speech that the man gave next that wasn't in Arabic was the word Jericho and Yinsen confirmed he was referring to Toni's missile when he translated, "He wants you to build the missile. The Jericho missile that you demonstrated," another string of Arabic and a photo was handed over, "This one."_

_Toni looked at the picture darkly before directing the look at the spokesman. "I refuse," she said firmly throwing the full weight of her glare at him._

"Toni!" Clint shouted not wanting to know what they did in an attempt to break her. It was always worse for women for they were in some ways easier to humiliate and debase making them crack quicker. Natasha was the exception to this as she had been trained for it but Toni had just been a civilian at the time. Yet he couldn't help but be impressed by Toni's courage in not just giving in after knowing full well that they could kill her by simply pulling the car battery electromagnet out if they wished to and that they were cruel enough to deny her anaesthetics during open heart surgery.

The others were similarly scared and impressed by Toni's actions. She was just as brave without her armour and they hadn't quite realised it until they saw her flat out refuse to cooperate with terrorists. Steve was also unsurprisingly feeling guilty which had become his overwhelming emotion whilst watching these movies. How could he have been so stupid?!

_The spokesman looked bewildered and the shot changed to show Toni being shoved face first into a bowl of water unable to close her mouth if she wanted to be able to breathe. _

The others watched in horror as Toni was subjected to something that they didn't know if they would be able to cope with. And yet she'd come home and she'd refused therapy. Refused. Point blank! Toni however was not focusing on how 'stupid,' it had been for her to choose not to be analysed by doctors who knew nothing about her true experiences because all she could feel was the memory of what it had been like to suffocate under all that water. Or was it a memory? She didn't even know any more. Her throat felt like it was closing up and her breaths became short and laboured. It was all she could do to keep them quiet enough that the team wouldn't hear her. Even Clint who was sitting right next to her.

"What is that?" Steve said appalled.

"It's called waterboarding," Natasha said weakly, "It's the only way that you can drown someone no dry land. I suddenly understand why there are no bathtubs in this tower except for the one Toni bought me for my birthday from my suite."

Suddenly Toni leapt to her feet muttering a 'sorry,' and fled the room. Clint only got a brief glimpse of her face before she was gone and it looked like she was beginning to cry. Natasha was about to take off after her but Clint had a feeling Toni would put on a brave face around someone she knew well which really only left him and Thor. And Thor wouldn't know what to say to an emotional Toni Stark. Well, neither did he but he had a feeling he'd do a better job than the demigod. "I'll go," he told the group, "JARVIS where is Toni?" he figured Toni wouldn't have had time to forbid her AI to reveal her location.

"Miss Stark is in Lab 11," JARVIS informed Clint obviously relieved that Toni hadn't forbidden him from getting her help this time around.

Clint quickly ran into the elevator and typed in the emergency code for Toni's labs so that JARVIS could take him down to the lab without having to override everything and alert Toni to the fact that he was coming down. Once she recovered she'd probably give him hell for using his emergency code for this but it would be worth it if he could stop her crying. Toni crying was too strange. She never let go like that around anyone.

"Toni," he said quietly as he stepped out into the lab but when she didn't reply he had to follow the quiet choked up sobbing to find her sitting in the corner of the room as far away from the lift as she could get. "Oh god!" he muttered. He wasn't qualified to deal with this but then again nobody was.

He didn't try and put his arms around her knowing from his observations of the team that she was uncomfortable with physical contact she didn't initiate. He was invading her privacy enough by just being here and he didn't want to do anything she wasn't comfortable with. But he didn't have to grab hold of her because as he was the nearest thing Toni grabbed hold of him. And that was how he knew that Toni had hit her absolute lowest because she didn't seek out human contact and she certainly didn't want to appear weak to her teammates who underestimated her anyway due to her status as the non-trained non-super powered member of the Avengers. Yet here she was completely broken because nobody was ever meant to know about the things the Avengers had seen on that screen. If they had ever been told at all it definitely wouldn't have been in that much detail.

Clint wasn't sure how long he was sitting there but he knew when Toni was beginning to get back to her old self for she pushed him away from her and caught off guard Clint flew back a bit. He had to give Toni a couple more minutes to stop crying for long enough to speak but eventually she managed to choke out, "You shouldn't have to see me like that. Or like this for that matter."

"No, I shouldn't," Clint agreed, "because all of this should never have happened to you. I don't care that if it hadn't you wouldn't have become Iron Man or you might not have been the person you are today but nobody should have to go through that. Especially without the training that Natasha and I have or the powers that the others do, it wasn't fair."

"Life isn't fair," Toni parroted obviously having heard the phrase many times before, "sometimes I think I deserved it."

She didn't give Clint the time he needed to get over that statement and formulate a reply because Toni was already up on her feet and heading back to the elevator clearly dismissing the topic as dealt with. She had gone back into her shell and Clint knew no matter what he did he wouldn't pull her out of it again. So he sighed and followed her into the elevator and punched in the code for the lounge. "JARVIS there had better me a drink no wait make that at least three drinks waiting for me when we get back up there," Toni said pulling out tissue to wipe away the mascara lines which had trailed down her cheeks.

As soon as the elevator doors opened Toni strode confidently back into the room and downed one of the glasses of whiskey on the table in one go. Then she turned to Phil and asked, "Would you mind swapping with me? We can make the couch the ex-SHIELD member couch."

The others knew this was clearly a tactic to get away from Clint after their discussion down in Lab 11 but Phil didn't see any reason why he shouldn't move that wouldn't offend Toni so he agreed to it and Toni curled up on the couch next to Bruce sipping on the second glass of whiskey.

_Toni was only given a second to spit out as much water as she could before under the watchful eye of someone who was probably the real leader of the group she was shoved back under. As she was shoved back beneath it sounded like she could hear Piper screaming her name._

Bruce flexed his fists dangerously with a glint of green entering his eyes. But he knew that Hulking out in the Tower wouldn't enable him to find the men who did this and crush them. And he supposed the Hulk knew that too because he was able to calm down without any assistance for once.

"I shall find these mortals and electrocute them!" Thor boomed in anger. He didn't like seeing Friend Toni dealt with so brutally by men who had no right to touch the Lady of Iron.

_The men surrounding her spoke in Arabic again the only word in English being Jericho. They dragged her from the room and shoving the bag back over her head escorted her towards the cave mouth._

Natasha really hoped that just before Toni was shown being waterboarded there was a massive time skip that hadn't been confirmed because otherwise this was only the beginning and Toni wouldn't be taking advantage of being out of the cave to escape. It was unlikely but Natasha could dream. They could have done anything to her friend with three months to do it in.

_Once they were outside the bag was ripped off Toni's head and she blinked in the Afghanistan sunlight which blinded her momentarily for all she could see was white light. But her eyes managed to adjust and she saw the full scale of the camp with box after box of weapons piled up under rudimentary tents. The spokesman beckoned Toni to come down and one of the soldiers pushed her to get her to move nearly knocking the car battery from her hands._

"How did you escape with that in your hands?" Bruce wondered not quite able to believe that even Toni could have invented a replacement for it in such rudimentary conditions. The Jericho missile maybe but not an arc reactor or anything similar to it.

_Toni very carefully makes sure none of the soldiers have their hands on her and makes her way down the slope by her own power. She made sure to take in everything that was around and couldn't help but notice that 'Stark Industries,' was written on almost every box and missile._

"It's not your fault," Clint was quick to point out still scared by her admission during their earlier conversation, "you had no control over who the company was selling your weapons to. You just designed them."

_The spokesman turned to Toni once more eyeing her dangerously talking briefly in Arabic. "He wants to know what you think," Yinsen informed Toni._

"_I think you got a lot of my weapons," Toni deadpanned determined not to let them see that they were getting to her. _

_Yinsen promptly translated this for the spokesman who went back into another speech in Arabic that Toni wasn't letting on she understood. "He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile," Yinsen said in a resigned tone._

"No they didn't," Toni spoke up surprisingly, "not really. I could have improvised one maybe but that wasn't my plan."

"Then what was your plan?" Phil asked but they got nothing else out of Toni.

"_He wants you to make the list of materials," Yinsen continued and paused to let the spokesman speak once more, "He says for you to start working immediately, and when you're done, he will set you free."_

_Toni reached out and took the spokesman's offered hand and said matter-of-factly, "no he won't."_

"_No he won't," Yinsen agreed._

"But if Friend Toni did what they wished why would they hold her for ransom any longer?" Thor asked confused.

"They were planning on killing me once I was done Thor," Toni sighed.

_The spokesman beamed clearly thinking Toni had agreed as Toni's eyes caught sight of the real leader of the group standing on a rock face not far away. _

"Well done," Natasha said more out of habit than anything else, "spotted who's really pulling the strings."

_Back in the cave Toni was staring empty eyed into the fire not bothering to acknowledge the fact that Yinsen was speaking from his position behind her, "I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark. But they will never find you in these mountains."_

"True," Toni said bitterly, "I ended up having to find them."

"_Look," he said softly crouching down beside her, "what you just saw, that is your legacy Stark. Your life's work in the hands of those murderers. Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Toni Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?"_

"_Why should I do anything?" Toni asked clearly looking for some sort of confirmation of conclusions she had already come to, "They're going to kill me, you, either way."_

"You wanted him to tell you that you should fight and it wasn't useless defiance," Phil stated understanding why Toni seemed to have given up all of a sudden.

"_And if they don't I'll be dead in a week," Toni concluded._

"_Well, then," Yinsen told her, "this is a very important week for you isn't it?"_

**A/n: Yes, this is quite short. Don't lynch me okay it just seemed like the best place to cut it before we got into Toni really fighting back. And if you want more of this verse please go and read The Iron Façade and tell me what you think because it's the character study of Toni that I promised y'all **


	29. An Arc Reactor

Chapter 29 – An Arc Reactor

**A/n: I'm so glad you all liked The Iron Façade, seeing as it's a oneshot all review replies will be posted here seeing as all of you read this story too.**

**youwannabekate: Looking forward to hearing what you thought of it. I'm glad it met your expectations Kate, it means a lot to me when my regular readers like things I write. And that's why I cut it there I was just like… oh this chapter is shorter than I thought it would be. Protective!Avengers are the best.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked those parts. Still trying to get as many interactions between them as possible. Toni fights back differently (yet effectively) from the others :D **

**Ashtree1165: /Bows/ Thank you for the applause. And I'm glad you liked Iron Façade as well. Another reason the last chapter was so short was because I was writing that.**

**Booklover2526: Hiding behind masks is Toni's speciality and when one falters you find another. I'm really glad you liked IF. And that's the intention of showing Toni break down in a nutshell. She shouldn't have to deal with it and so she hasn't been. Until now when she acts as anyone else would.**

**paisley15: I'm trying to balance out the conversations and interactions equally so I needed some Bruce/Toni love to balance out the Clint/Toni. Sounds like a good way to be weird to me :D **

**ReadPaxJoy: I'm hoping crying is a good thing cause you know otherwise I'm doing something wrong clearly. Glad you enjoyed it.**

**Post U Later: I'm glad you're still thoroughly enjoying the chapters you're reading :D **

**SparkleNicole: I'm really glad you are enjoying this story :D Enjoy this chapter**

**Dragones: I know right; Toni's gone through so much. Have some more /lol/**

**ladynarutochan: Ahh! So you have ulterior motives. That is a good point because if I die you don't get anymore. That should ward off future threats of lynching :D **

**HKTM: I'm so glad that you really liked IF because it's kind of hard to write in that style so I'm glad I pulled it off. You're welcome**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad**

**skywright: Thank you for being understanding because that is precisely why I split it like that.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I was wondering where you had gotten to. But you know what happens so not technically a cliffie only for those watching the film. Just the acknowledgment that they're going to die is just… /shivers/ Clint is awesome.**

"Annie's about to trick them," Natasha said confidently, "probably by claiming she'll make the missile and making something else instead." Like the others she wasn't entirely convinced that even the genius that was Toni Stark could make something as complex as the Iron Man suit or the Arc Reactor in a cave.

"You've clearly been spending too long around me if you can peg my reactions like that," Toni laughed glad to be distracted from the screen. Even after she had 'agreed' to build the missile they had still tortured her occasionally to make sure she was 'properly motivated.' She just hoped Amora hadn't shown any of that on the screen.

"_If this is going to be my work station, I want it well lit," Toni ordered as the terrorists brought in all of the materials Toni was claiming to need, "I want these up," Yinsen was standing to one side translating for Toni as she still wasn't revealing her knowledge of Arabic._

"Always have something in back up that you don't reveal to your captors," Clint said pleased that Toni knew one of the basic rules of being kidnapped. Always keep something in reserve no matter how trivial it may seem. Knowing Arabic would let Toni in on some of their plans and they would talk freely around her as

"_I need welding gear," Toni continued, "I don't care if it's acetylene or propane. I need a soldering station. I need helmets. I'm gonna need goggles. I would like a smelting cup. I need two sets of precision tools."_

"Okay," Bruce said quietly to Toni, "I'm beginning to think you did the impossible… again."

"Some things are impossible," Toni replied cryptically, "some just should be."

_Toni's hands covered in a crude imitation of gloves were working on unscrewing one of the screws on a missile._

"They didn't give you gloves!" Bruce shouted appalled by the lack of safety given to Toni when she wasn't in a) the safety of her own labs where accidents just didn't happen due to JARVIS and her other AI's controlling everything or b) a situation where she wasn't working with highly dangerous materials.

In response to this statement Toni simply held up her left hand that bore the marks of improperly treated chemical burns. More and more often the people in the room were becoming prone to speechlessness whenever Toni gave a response to a disturbing statement. It seemed as if nothing could go her way.

_As she pulled the Allen key from the screw Toni asked Yinsen, "how many languages do you speak?"_

"_A lot," Yinsen stated simply, "But apparently, not enough for this place. They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian." As he spoke Toni pulled out the contents of the missile shell._

"We know you speak Russian and Arabic," Steve said, "but how many of the others do you know?"

"Since coming back I've learned to speak all of them out of paranoia," Toni informed him, "But at the time I spoke Urdu and Mongolian out of that selection on top of the others."

"From what I have seen of this part of Midgard not many people speak any of those languages in this part of your world," Thor said puzzled, "so why would you need to learn of them?"

"I think you underestimate that amount of business dealings I have all over the world Thor," Toni replied, "for a start in some parts of America many people speak Spanish only or French only so you get those bases covered and I clearly did. Then there are extremely influential technical savvy businessmen in both China and Japan so you have to be able to speak those languages too. Europe is a consumer industry so covering your bases there as much as possible is a good idea. You have French and Spanish down already and Britain speaks English if technically a slightly different version so there you go. Germany and Italy are also big consumer industries whose languages are spoken worldwide so those languages are your next best bet. Then cover Scandinavia, don't go for Finnish because it's completely different from the others but get Norwegian and Swedish down and you'll still be able to communicate in Finland for it's the second language they learn there. Russia is a big place so Russian is always a good idea. You still haven't covered India which is a big place to leave blank so you need to pick up something from there but there are so many separate dialects in India that you need to pick up a few so start with Hindi and Punjabi as they're two of the farthest reaching. Maybe add Sanskrit if you have the time which I did because I got bored of working on one of my projects. Then you've covered a lot of bases but hang on there are still some cultures that you miss out on with that list so Arabic is a great jump start to getting more people to understand you especially as it gets Africa which until now has been a blank. Portuguese is good for Africa too as it's one of the most common languages after English and French plus its uses in Portugal obviously. I went for Swahili and some Berber dialects to cover the majority of the rest. The Mongolian was just because I got bored and Urdu is good for Asia. Add Latin and Greek for important clauses in law for all the contracts I have to deal with and you have a pretty hefty list. I need all of these languages Thor because that's my job."

"A-aren't you supposed to have consultants and translators who communicate with them for you?" Steve said taken aback.

"Yes," Toni replied, "but it's not mandatory and I don't trust people. I know them all by name and could probably tell you a significant amount of their history but I don't _know _them. I certainly can't trust them! There's been double dealing in my company before and I will not let it happen again on my watch."

"_Who are these people?" Toni asked fishing for information._

"_They are your loyal customers, ma'am," Yinsen told her, "they call themselves the Ten Rings."_

_Toni placed the interior of the bomb down at the table curiously clutching at her stomach with one hand rather than her chest where the real damage was. _

"O боже," Natasha realised, "you were still being tortured."

"How did you figure that out?" Bruce said bewildered.

"Toni's got a hand over her stomach and is specifically working with only her other. It's highly inconvenient to work one handed if you have a clearly functioning second hand. And she admitted a while ago that she is in constant pain from the arc reactor now! An improvised electromagnet and the fact that it was a recent trauma means that she would be in excruciating pain from it yet her hand isn't clutching at her chest but at her stomach. Therefore something happened to injure it between the last shot and this. They kept torturing her," Clint finished having come to the same conclusion as Natasha.

_In another makeshift room within the cave some of the terrorists were watching the progress of the pair on computer screens via the security camera but as they weren't doing anything suspicious they thought nothing of their actions._

_Back in the cave Toni was using a drill she had been brought to open up one of the larger missiles. "You know," Yinsen said crouching down next to her, "we might be more productive if you include me in the planning process." Toni acknowledged this view but still didn't let him in on the specifics._

"As horrible as it sounds that was the right decision," Bruce said hesitantly not knowing how Toni would take it.

"It makes sense," Steve acknowledged, "I know a thing or two about secrets and it's easier to keep them if you only tell someone when it becomes an absolute necessity to do so."

Toni was glad of Steve's approval of this part of her plan because in her current state she was sure another rant from Steve about her trust issues would either send her spiralling back to tears which she never wanted to happen again or would cause her to blow up at him again and destroy the tentative friendship between the pair that was building throughout the viewing of these films.

_A couple of well-aimed hits to the nose of the missile detached it from the rest and then she pulled out the interior of that one as well. Then she sat down at one of the tables in the room and began to take it apart talking as she worked, "okay, we don't need this," she said throwing anything she hadn't extracted over her shoulder callously and picking up a thin sliver of a silver material off of the table with some miniature tongs._

"_What is that?" Yinsen inquired._

"_That's palladium, 0.15 grams," Toni informed him._

"I cannot believe you," Natasha said incredulously, "you actually managed to do it in a cave in Afghanistan. That's not something that anyone should be able to make not-impossible and yet somehow you managed it."

"Had it not sunk in that I'm a genius yet?" Toni joked glad to have finally managed to shock Natasha so much that it showed on her face.

"_We need at least 1.6," Toni informed her slipping into her business mode, "so why don't you go break down the other 11?"_

_As this was happening the men were still watching him on the screen, "what's she doing?" one of them asked._

"_Working," replied the one who was closely monitoring the screens._

"They figured out that I wasn't making the Jericho a lot later than I thought they would actually," Toni said candidly, "it gave me an advantage that they were such idiots. What I was building should have become more obvious much more quickly!"

_Toni worked intensively to form a suitable mould for the palladium the size of the hole in her chest as Yinsen removed the melted down element from the fire. "Careful," Toni told him walking forward with the car battery in her hands, "Careful, we only get one shot at this."_

"You were worried that it wouldn't work out," Bruce speculated.

"Other people introduce variables I can't control but it was a necessary evil," Toni confirmed.

"_Relax," Yinsen said soothingly, "I have steady hands. Why do you think you're still alive?"_

_He poured the molten liquid onto Toni's mould as Toni inquired, "What do I call you?"_

"Wait you still didn't know his name at this point," Steve said bewildered, "I just assumed you hadn't said it in any of the conversations that were shown."

"We didn't really have time for idle chit chat," Toni pointed out, "we were rushing to save our lives and it was the first free moment that we got. He only knew my identity because I'm a public figure and we met once. I meet so many people at conferences and like I said earlier. It was a bad weekend. I only asked then because just referring to him as a fellow captive in my head got weird."

"_My name is Yinsen," he told her._

"_Yinsen," Toni repeated, "Nice to meet you."_

_Yinsen finished up with pouring the palladium and turned to Toni amused, "Nice to meet you, too."_

"Keeping some semblance of normality is what keeps you alive," Toni told the group who were looking a little surprised at the turn the conversation had taken.

"I thought that was what you were doing I just didn't expect something that normal from you even when you weren't in captivity," Phil quipped causing Toni's lips to quirk upwards not wanting to admit that she found what would have been an insult to anybody else amusing.

_Toni gently lifted the ring of palladium off of the mould and into the vessel she needed it in for her mechanism as Yinsen watched. She went on to fix together lengths of wire and bits of scrap metal they had from the disassembling of the missiles using a system of mirrors so that she could get a detailed look at what she was doing._

Bruce suddenly realised what Toni was doing upon seeing the shape of what she was constructing and was taken aback. He didn't say anything but he was more impressed than he'd ever been by any of Toni's inventions by the fact that she could build something as powerful as an arc reactor which was miniaturised in a cave using scraps from old weapons. He knew she was smart, he knew she was a genius, he hadn't known the true extent of her intellect until now and he wasn't sure how to process it. He had of course known that Toni left him in the dust when it came to most fields except perhaps his own specialised one in gamma radiation and even then she was pretty damn close. He only kept ahead because of pure necessity to know everything about the accident that caused the Hulk. It created an obsessive need to find out more so he could prevent it happening to anyone ever again. Yet he had somehow missed just how far ahead Toni truly was because she hadn't just made a self-sustaining energy source. She had made the prototype under duress and in direct defiance of her captors.

_The next shot was of Toni turning up a device and the rudimentary arc reactor sitting on the table lit up with a neon blue glow._

"You invented it in a CAVE!" Clint exclaimed. Now that he knew how the arc reactor worked it seemed even more incredible a creation that must have required expert precision to create. He didn't think anything that complicated could be made of scraps.

Steve seemed to be lost for words once more and the others were still coming to terms with the idea themselves as Toni began to explain, "'necessity is the mother of invention'", she quoted, "it was most likely Plato who came up with that or a Greek version anyway and he was right. If I hadn't been under significant duress when I built it then arc reactor technology would never have become publically available and the Tower would still be connected to the Grid. But I made it work because I needed it to stay alive. I flourish in difficult situations."

_Yinsen exclaimed in awe upon seeing it, "That doesn't look like a Jericho missile."_

"_That's because it's a miniaturised arc reactor," Toni explained, "I got a big one powering my factory at home. It should keep the shrapnel out of my heart."_

Steve threw Toni's jacket a quick look imagining the arc reactor that was hidden beneath it. Far from the arrogant billionaire's whim that he had thought it was originally it actually kept his friend alive. Maybe he had been wrong about her reasons for creating Iron Man as well. But he hoped not. He didn't think he could live with the guilt that would come with that realization because that would mean that Toni and the suit were actually a package deal rather than the separate entities that he had always treated them as. He remembered one occasion when he had mused out loud after a fight with Toni about her not following orders that they could find somebody else to fly the Iron Man suit without any significant problems at all. If that turned out to be untrue then he had a lot more to make up for than he knew and Toni had just brushed it off as if she was used to insults being hurled at her even from those who claimed they were her friends.

"_But what could it generate?" Yinsen asked._

"_If my math is right, and it always is, three gigajoules per second," Toni told him._

"Wow," Bruce said not able to think of anything else to say in response to that.

"The one I have now is more powerful," Toni said shocking Bruce even more, "I couldn't keep that piece of trash in my body.

_Especially since it was killing you, _Natasha thought but she didn't say it out loud. She had no doubts that Amora would bring it up eventually towards the end of these events.

"_That could run your heart for 50 lifetimes," Yinsen calculated._

"_Yeah," Toni admitted, "or something big for fifteen minutes."_

_Toni placed some sketches of different parts of some sort of a machine on one of the tables and switched the lamp above it on to give Yinsen a better view. There were four crumpled sheets in total and the top one didn't seem to show anything._

"_This is our ticket out of here," Toni whispered._

"_What is it?" Yinsen queried._

"_Flatten them out and look," Toni stated before smoothing the pieces of paper together and with the help of the light the Iron Man armour came together on the pieces of paper._

"The suit _and _the reactor," Natasha exclaimed unable to hold back the disbelief from her voice.

**A/n: I'm sorry this is another short one but my computer keeps freezing up and I have to keep rebooting it so this is my attempt at getting you your chapter today. I'm sorry if any of you were looking forward to a longer one.**


	30. Building A Suit

Chapter 30 – Building A Suit

**A/n: Have an announcement guys. I'm near 300 reviews so my 300****th**** reviewer whoever that may be can ask me to write a story in this verse of their choosing (if it's Thor heavy/centric it may not be too good as I don't feel I write him well).**

**Post U Later: Toni may be strong but looking strong and feeling it are different things and I wanted to emphasise that with that scene. It was mainly just a random pick of one of the other characters.**

**Lovergirl24: Her ending up with Piper is a plot point I need to avoid a plot hole so you can count on that.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Finally, the Steve angst is itching to be written over those details. **

**paisley15: Yeah that's another one of my headcanons. Plus the fact that the one Rhodey takes is the Mark II where the display is shown to be much simpler. And poor Steve didn't even know that the systems of the suit were complicated until he watched the Avengers movie. Plus he doesn't know that the comparatively simpler Mark I is a) unusable and b) a piece of junk compared to the others. Yeah, I wish I could write more Phil but his character wants to stay IC so I can't :D I'll try and give you some of his thoughts when I feel I can.**

**youwannabekate: Yeah, the chapter was actually going to be longer but wouldn't have been up yesterday. I guess I have twisted perceptions because I update every day /lol/ Feel free to add all the French you liked because they are sadistic bastards so /shrugs/ Of course it's badass. It's Toni!**

**Stiles Holmes: You're very welcome :) I'm glad you love it**

**ShouldBeAsleep: Loving the guest username :D I'm really glad you love this story and thank you for your praise. **

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Yep, it baffles me how the Avengers seem to forget that more often than not. This is a new one; a new laptop so I knew it was a program and I hope the one I deleted and rebooted was the right one. **

**Dragones: I'm glad that seeing an update makes your mornings brighter :) And don't worry about the plugging. I used to plug my stories as much as possible.**

**ReadPaxJoy: I'm really pleased you think so highly of this story and that while it didn't make you cry it was still good.**

**Shinigami92 and Harm Marie: I'm glad :)**

**nessa11997: You're welcome.**

**ladynarutochan: Just bow to Toni's awesomeness and stop stalking me**

"From now on I'm suspending all replies to comments along the lines of how incredibly impossible and amazing it was that I managed to build the first Arc Reactor and the first Iron Man suit in a cave," Toni said in a biting tone, "because I basically end up replying in the same way every time."

"_Impressive," Yinsen exclaimed not having anything else to say. A brief exterior shot showed that outside the cave the bitter cold of an Afghanistan night was setting in._

"It was already winter there," Steve said shocked that Toni could have been in captivity for so long.

"Not necessarily," Bruce informed him, "during the day Afghanistan is one of the hottest countries on Earth but at night it's absolutely freezing. The temperature variation is among the widest in the world in that area."

_Watched through one of the video cameras Yinsen could be seen installing the newly created arc reactor into the hole in Toni's chest._

"That must have been uncomfortable no matter how necessary it was," Natasha said wincing.

"I had no choice so I didn't let it bother me," Toni stated although it was clear that she was still trying to convince herself of that.

_Toni quickly sat up and threw a tank top on over the arc reactor as fast as she could before Yinsen pulled her to her feet. Through the camera you could clearly see a blue circle of light shining through the tank top but the terrorists appeared not to realise its importance._

"You were right," Clint told Toni, "they should have realised what you were doing much earlier."

"I think they assumed that the light was some sort of torch I was carrying," Toni scoffed, "but they really should have checked."

_The next shot was of the kidnapped pair playing a board game as Toni muttered quietly to Yinsen in Arabic so any people guarding the door didn't overhear her knowledge of the language. "Good," Yinsen chuckled appreciatively upon seeing the dice roll, "good roll. Good roll."_

"Yinsen needed the breaks," Toni explained to all those wondering why the woman who could work through a week without any sleep on some occasions was taking a break in her escape preparations to play a board game, "plus by keeping my sleeping habits on the down low I could pass off any excess work as adrenaline and that meant they kept on underestimating me."

"_You still haven't told me where you're from," Toni pointed out as she took the lid off of the teapot that sat next to her elbow. _

"_I'm from a small town named Gulmira," Yinsen answered, "It's actually a nice place."_

"Isn't that the place that Christine Everheart found…?" Natasha began but didn't need to go any further in her inquiry for Toni's eyes had taken on a sort of dead look as she heard this question and she knew she was right. Why was it that whenever she was right about something during this film she sincerely wished that she had actually been wrong all along?And how on Earth had Amora believed that the contents of this movie would turn them against Toni when all they had been doing was showing that all the assumptions they had made about Toni were irrevocably wrong and some of those assumptions had been the cause of any lingering resentment for her friend. Mind you Amora was of Asgard so maybe in some way these events were repulsive to her? But Thor seemed just as appalled by them as the others were and while he had spent more time on Earth than any other of Asgard he still hadn't been there quite long enough to absorb their system of moral values.

"_Got a family?" Toni asked not quite able to meet Yinsen's eyes when she asked. _

"_Yes," Yinsen told her, "and I will see them when I leave here."_

"I still can't believe they told us the World War was over when there were still millions of people out there who are willing to kidnap men with families and women who've done nothing wrong and subject them to torture and humiliation because they can," Steve muttered into his hands.

"It's not a perfect world," Toni said quoting her words from earlier on in this very film, "but it's the only one we've got. That's still true in this context as much as it was when I said it back then.

"_And you Stark?" Yinsen asked._

_Toni seemed to think over her response for a while probably deciding whether she should lie to him or not but then obviously decided on the truth, "No."_

"Toni," Bruce said sadly.

"_No?" Yinsen questioned sadly, "So you're a woman who has everything and nothing." Toni's lip quirked up a little at this statement but she didn't say anything further on the subject._

"What about your friends Piper and Rhodey?" Thor asked, "In your culture aren't close friends often considered part of a family?"

"That's true Thor but the problem is back then I wasn't really close to either of them," Toni sighed sensing you wouldn't get out of this conversation, "Piper and I had to keep things entirely professional, well as professional as we could get with each other and as such we couldn't be friends. And Rhodey and I may have met at MIT but his first loyalty is to the military who I never truly trusted and even less so after I went to Afghanistan."

_In the passageway through the cave the spokesman indicated that the group he was with should progress as silently as possible and looked through the hatch in the door but as Yinsen was whittling away at something and Toni was using a circular saw he didn't think there was anything suspicious going on._

"How did you always know when they were coming so you would do something that wasn't incriminating?" Clint inquired.

"The standard of the cameras weren't very high so I guessed that some of our actions would be seen as making what they wanted under those angles. Anything particularly incriminating that would have shown up was done in a blind spot for the camera," Toni explained, "they were always bang on the dot for when they decided vague actions were no longer enough to satisfy that I was working and that's when they came around like clockwork. At those times of the day we would be working on things that were still crucial for the suit but that would be crucial for the construction of a missile too."

"The best ways for hiding unsavoury actions are always those when you trick your opponents into thinking it was what they wanted all along," Phil chipped in.

_Satisfied with what he had seen the group walked away again. Strewn across the tables of the lab were the mechanisms of bombs, welded sections of metal such as what appeared to be a breastplate along with boxes and boxes of high precision tools. At the very end of this table Toni was wielding a welder to create another piece of the suit and neatly connected up a gas canister._

"Rudimentary weapons system," Natasha said impressed.

_Back in the observation room the kidnappers were beginning to get suspicious as they compared the picture of the missile to what the kidnapped pair was creating._

"Is this when they figure it out?" Bruce asked nervously.

"No," Toni stated simply leaving Bruce wondering how on Earth they hadn't figured it out then if they had a photograph for comparison right there. How idiotic were these people and how did they expect to compete with someone as intelligent as Toni Stark? How did they ever think they'd come out on top in that situation?"

"_It doesn't look anything like the picture," the spokesman pointed out._

"_Maybe it's been modified," another reasoned._

"_The tail is wrong," the spokesman insisted but this was countered with a quick, "it's just backwards."_

"The things people will believe when they truly want to," Toni laughed, "they were always going to get suspicious and Raza caught on eventually but the fact that it was later rather than sooner and he didn't catch on to the whole plan bought me the time I needed."

"How long did this take?" Steve asked worried about how long Toni had been subjected to torture by the hands of these murderers.

"It'll probably come up later," Toni said cutting off Natasha who had been about to speak, "there's no point in telling you know. The deal stands. If it doesn't come up I will tell you when this movie ends."

_In his personal hut Raza was observing Toni on his own personal set of cameras and it showed that Toni had been forced to throw caution to the wind to test out the smoothness of the movements of the leg of the suit._

"That's what you were referring to with Raza catching on," Bruce speculated, "I'm assuming he's Raza."

"Yes," Toni said, "but he only knew I was working on something that wasn't related to his missile so he attempted to make me drop my extra project and focus on his. He didn't realise how close that extra project was to being completed at that stage. I got it done within the conditions he set because I wasn't attempting to make the Jericho missile at all."

"He underestimated you," Phil concluded, "as many of us, including I'm afraid me, have been prone to do in the past. You're a very talented engineer Toni; you're just as good at acting and I'm glad in a way that Howard was more focused on keeping you in society or you'd have been put through SHIELD training just like Clint was when you hit 16. But you couldn't vanish from MIT and the minute you graduated and would have been free game for Fury your parents died and you dropped completely off the grid until you turned twenty-one and took over as CEO of Stark Industries and at that point you were once again too public to remove. I'm assuming that you did that one purpose."

_The hatch on the door was slid open once again and Arabic was shouted through it. Toni looked up startled that someone was coming in although she luckily wasn't doing anything incriminating._

"You were surprised because of the regular schedule," Bruce hypothesised, "they just broke the pattern didn't they?"

"Yes," Toni confirmed, "they weren't due in the room for another hour after that. I figured they'd seen the practice I was doing with the leg mechanism for the suit and was just relying on their obliviousness up to that point to keep me safe from being shot right then and there for disobeying them which I wouldn't have put past them."

_The spokesman was the first to enter the room accompanied by a massive armed guard as Toni and Yinsen both lifted up their arms so they were behind their heads. At the end of this procession Raza walked forward through the guards and into the room._

"_Relax," he said speaking English unlike anyone else in the caves obviously noticing the arc reactor shining through Toni's t-shirt. _

"This had better end on a more positive note than my thoughts because I don't even want to think about something like that happening," Clint said feeling like he wanted to throw up despite his training from some of the macabre thoughts he had just come up with. At least he knew they didn't manage to kill or cripple Toni so some of his even more macabre ideas were plain ridiculous and didn't fit the facts.

_Toni and Yinsen lowered their hands slowly knowing it was best to do what the man in charge was telling them to even if it didn't make sense. Although they knew that in a way it did because he knew that neither of them could truly attack him in this situation without coming under heavy fire. Sure, one of them might kill him in the struggle but they weren't that desperate yet. _

_Raza walked over to Toni and pushed the material of the blouse she was wearing away slightly so he could see the arc reactor clearly._

Natasha snarled at the action but refrained from speaking again. If Toni's plan went the way she thought it might have done then those men were already long dead and there was nothing else she could do to them.

"_The bow and arrow," Raza began, "once was the pinnacle of weapons technology."_

"What do you mean once you creep?" Clint muttered. The slight at this weapon of choice had pushed him an inch closer to blowing up at an image on a television screen that couldn't even hear him but he had always been ridiculed for his choice of weapon within SHIELD as he fought his way up the ranks. Once the other Agents saw him become one of SHIELD's two top operatives who actually did field missions more than bureaucratic ones along with Natasha they finally stopped making fun of his weapon but that didn't stop him being overly protective of his choice to this day. Toni had once joked that she wasn't sure who Clint loved more Natasha or his arrows. Clint had informed her that the arrows one because he was just friends with Natasha. For some reason she had almost descended into a manic coughing fit from all the laughing she did upon hearing that statement.

_He walked away from Toni as he continued with his monologue, "It allowed the great Genghis Khan to rule from the Pacific to the Ukraine," here he paused to examine one of the disassembled missiles, "An empire twice the size of Alexander the Great and four times the size of the Roman empire," he made his way over to the work station and picked up the four sheets of paper that formed the plan for the suit._

"Thank god you thought to make sure the full thing couldn't be viewed except under certain conditions," Steve said relieved. If he hadn't known that Toni had drawn up that plan in such a complicated way he would have been worried sick at this point. This allowed him to focus on another aspect of this scene. Toni could draw and she could draw well. It was something that they had in common and Toni had never brought it up with him. And he knew that she knew he loved to draw because she had bought him the high end art equipment he now owned and was constantly updating his sketchpads when he ran out of room in them. He had often wondered why she didn't try to get him to draw on a tablet instead once he had mastered their use and now he knew why. Because she understood that the feeling of seeing the product come together wasn't the same on a touch screen.

"_But today," he continued not seeing the plans for what they really were, "whoever holds the latest Stark weapons rules these lands. And soon, it will be my turn," he said giving Toni a dark look as he said this._

_He walked over to face Toni but began to speak in Urdu instead of English and as he was unaware that Toni could understand him he was directing this part of the speech to Yinsen, "why have you failed me?"_

"_We're working," Yinsen replied nervously, "Diligently."_

Clint, Natasha and Phil had all seen this before but they still dreaded what might happen to the man who had helped Toni so much at this point in his capture. It was a common tactic. Use the surplus captive as leverage up to a point and when he proves more of a nuisance than a help kill him so that the other hostage gets the message that you are willing to kill them if you don't follow through on your side of the bargain.

"_I let you live," Raza said turning to walk towards Yinsen, "This is how you repay me?"_

"_It's very complex," Yinsen continued desperately trying to save his own skin._

"Deflection doesn't usually work," Toni said quietly.

"_She's trying very hard," he finished._

"_On his knees," Raza ordered and two of the guards grabbed Yinsen and forced him down onto the ground, "you think I'm a fool?" Raza was now chuckling at the notion, "I'll get the truth."_

"_We're both working," Yinsen attempted again._

"I was wondering why you weren't speaking," Bruce told Toni privately, "but then I realised that you're keeping the attention away from yourself until you either had to intervene or it was the best possible moment. Whichever happened to come up prior to the other."

_Raza blew gently on a boiling hot coal that he had removed from the smelter with a pair of tongs and ordered, "Open your mouth."_

**A/n: And it's getting really late so I have to leave it there I'm afraid. I think this one seems more like a cliffie than the others and again another short chapter but I have to split the captivity scenes up quite equally before we get back to scenes where the commentary can go back to a more complex rate.**


	31. Time To Go

Chapter 31 – Time To Go

**A/n: Congrats to ReadPaxJoy who was among many other numbers reviewer 300 so pick a prompt related to this story and I will write it as best I can. The next time this happens will be for my 350****th**** reviewer.**

**youwannabekate: There will be split opinion on the first scene among the group. Some of them will be amused of course though. And there's more angst at the end remember :) **

**ReadPaxJoy: It's lovely here in this Avengers world; just stay here fulltime. I do! JARVIS uses technical terms and I don't have a Blu-ray player so… I come up with weird Scottish metaphors so I can't judge. What can I say? I like writing women who can kick ass :) It's one of the reasons Peggy is in so many of my headcanons. Everyone is upset with Piper /lol/ Phil always breaks the tension. Looking forward to hearing about what you want for your oneshot**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: All the captivity is soon to be over which is good because it does get kind of hard to keep up the commentary. Enjoy this chapter!**

**writergirl85: I'm really glad that you really like this story**

**Dragones: To a lesser extent he manages to do that in the movie so I'll leave the next section of the dialogue mostly unchanged. And I'm glad you liked the languages that Toni speaks.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I updated at nearly 5am here and slept for an hour before getting up and starting work on this one before I had to go out so complaining to be kept to a minimum :D **

**whitetigerwolf: Yeah, that pairing is making me want to write it so you can just try and hit the next milestone and ask for it :D Glad you enjoyed the chapter**

**paisley15: Yes, it seems like a cliffie but it's still not one really :D But there's more suspense there than for the other chapters. I love Phil and the last chapter had more opportunities available to slot him in. And I'm glad the Clint part came across well :) And I know it's ridiculous; their captors were so stupid**

**nessa11997: Thank you and I'm glad :) **

**Harm Marie and MusicalLover17: I'm glad**

**TryingNotToFall: And I do so every day so here's today's :) **

**Post U Later: Toni is certainly awesome to do something like that which nobody else in the world could do.**

"That's… that's…" Steve said apparently lost for words.

"That's the lengths these types of men are willing to go to. They want something and if you don't need a functioning tongue to do what they need you to then they'll hurt that part of you," Toni said darkly, "they don't care. That's what makes them so dangerous."

"People who are willing to torture you to get their goals don't hold back because something is particularly against the moral values of the rest of the world," Natasha chimed in.

"_What does he want?" Toni asked to keep up appearances. Her dark look could be attributed to her seeing the hot coal so it didn't give away the fact that she was angry because she knew exactly what was going on._

"That must have been hard," Bruce said sympathetically. Clint who had been planning to compliment Toni on her acting at this point suddenly realised that might be a bad idea so he kept his comment to himself. He didn't want to upset Toni again because the image of a crying Toni Stark was one he could never get out of his head and he didn't want to subject anybody else to it.

"_You think I'm a fool?" Raza reiterated as he forced Yinsen's head down onto a nearby anvil, "what's going on? Tell me the truth."_

_Toni was still analysing the situation carefully trying to decide whether she should interfere yet but she appeared to know that it wasn't the right time yet. "She's building your Jericho," Yinsen insisted as the hot coal got closer to his mouth._

"Surely he wouldn't be able to get information out of Friend Toni's fellow captive if he could no longer speak due to burns to his tongue," Thor said puzzled.

"They were aiming to intimidate me enough that I would tell them what it was I was doing," Toni explained, "although in a way it would be idiotic because they couldn't do that to me or they'd never get a secret so a second intention of it was to intimidate me into dropping the Iron Man project. They didn't know me of course so they didn't know that if they attempted to mess with me or someone I had started protecting that I would just work twice as hard on my own projects."

_The two kept exchanging their last two statements as the hot coal drew closer and closer to Yinsen's mouth. Eventually Toni decided that it was time for her to intervene and she stepped forward interrupting, "What do you want? A delivery date?"_

"I'm hoping that was a calculated risk Annie," Natasha said, "because they're not going to be at all happy with that especially since you moved forward towards their leader."

"It wasn't the most elegant way to do it but it was the most effective way of turning their attention to me," Toni said defensively, "I didn't really have the time to come up with anything subtle."

"She has a point," Phil pointed out.

_The minute she stepped forward the guns turned to be aimed directly at her with only a few remaining on Yinsen as they called out in Arabic for her to stop moving. _

"Successful distraction technique if a bit crude," Clint acknowledged, "given the time you had."

_She held her hand up to show that she wasn't going to attempt to fight her way out and managed to get Raza's attention. She carefully thought through what she was going to say before speaking again feigning coldness, "I need him. Good assistant."_

"By not making a big deal out of it Toni assured that they wouldn't hurt Yinsen anyway because they knew it would affect her," Natasha said sensing Steve was about to protest against Toni's apparent coldness, "by making him necessary to her process she _saved _him from the torture."

"We haven't even seen if they did yet," Steve defended himself.

"Trust me Steve," Bruce said, "they will. It was the perfect way to say what she did."

_Raza seemed to accept this explanation as satisfactory as he dropped the hot coal onto the anvil in front of Yinsen and signalled that his men should let go of him, "you have till tomorrow to assemble my missile," he informed Toni._

"How did you manage to assemble something as complicated as the suit from the parts you had already within a day?" Clint said shocked.

"Necessity," Toni stated referring to one of her previous points and Clint realised that it had been the adrenaline that had kept them going during the day that was about to be shown on film.

_He threw the tongs down on the floor as he stormed out giving Toni another dark look to show that he was still suspicious of what she was doing. The next shot showed Toni in a black tank top shaping a piece of metal._

"Wait how many changes of clothes did you have there?" Natasha asked seeing that this was only the third different outfit they had seen Toni in since she got there.

"Just the three you've seen," Toni admitted, "they weren't particularly looking for me to be comfortable. Just functional."

_She lowered it into a barrel of steaming liquid and pulled out the finished Iron Man mask and placed it on Yinsen's table where he was working on some of the wiring for it._

_Later on Toni was winding tape around her hands as Yinsen winched up the chest plate of the Iron Man suit behind her._

"You did say the first suit you created was a 'pile of junk' but I didn't think you meant it so literally Friend Toni," Thor said surprised.

"Yeah," Toni said with a slight smile, "It was one of the few times that I've ever been surprised that something actually worked purely because a lot of the materials that I had there were perfect for building bombs of course but not particularly for making a mechanical suit that's large enough to fit someone inside of it. I didn't know if it was actually possible but it was of course far too late to back out of it."

"You should never doubt your work Toni if you had doubts about something that clearly got you out of there alive," Clint exclaimed.

"No," Toni said, "actually I should because then I double check and triple check everything which means if there's any chance that something dangerous has come loose on an invention - or anything has come loose really – that I catch it and nobody ends up getting killed. I gave up the weapons industry to cut down a death toll."

_Once the suit was in position Yinsen helped Toni into her jacket and gloves just to make the process faster._

"We knew we would be detected any minute," Toni muttered. It was loud enough for the others to hear… just. But they weren't sure if they were meant to so none of them responded.

_The process continued with the breastplate of the suit being lowered onto Toni and clicking into place over the arc reactor in her chest which connected its power to the suit. "Okay? Can you move?" Yinsen said addressing one of the most important concerns they had. _

"The most important thing in any captive situation is always if you can move around to get out around any injuries. The suit just made it more important," Clint realised.

_Toni clenched her fists to demonstrate that she could move as Yinsen told her, "okay, say it again."_

"_41 steps straight ahead," Toni reeled off as Yinsen connected up one of the gas containers, "then 16 steps, that's from the door, fork right, 33 steps, turn right."_

"I have never been gladder of your memory Toni," Bruce chipped in knowing that anything small his friend could remember would have assisted her with her escape especially since vision in that helmet had to be limited although the eyeholes would make sure she wasn't going into a dangerous situation totally blind. Yet any detailed work would have to be done with the helmet off unlike Toni's new suits which had JARVIS installed in them and were of course highly sophisticated.

_Raza walked up to the screens displaying the image of the cell section of the cave where only Yinsen was visible because the view of Toni was blocked by the wood that the suit was propped up against to keep the suit a surprise for as long as possible. "Where's Stark?" Raza asked._

"_She was here a minute ago," another man said confused and worried that something would happen to him for not noticing Toni's absence from the screen sooner._

"And they finally figure out that you're up to something Annie," Natasha said, "took them long enough. I thought you were busted at least three times before this and even that is an extremely low amount considering just how long you were there."

Steve's theory that there had been a time skip of more than a day at one point or maybe more than one point had just been confirmed but he didn't like being right. That meant that Toni hadn't been missing for only a week or two. It had been far longer than that which meant that Toni had been subjected to torture over a long period of time and for some reason had been stubborn enough to refuse treatment because for a genius she was an idiot when it came to her personal health. He'd seen that for himself all of the times that Toni had ended up injured during battles when she'd check herself out of the hospital prematurely because she disliked them with no regard to how safe it was for her to do so. In fact they really needed to talk to Toni about that at some point because while he could understand she might want to be treated at home the only Doctor she actually let near her was Bruce and some of the injuries were too much for him. He now knew that it was probably due to this seeing as he could see some startling similarities between Bruce and Yinsen and he wondered if that was another reason that Toni had trusted Bruce so quickly whilst the rest of them vilified him but she hadn't told them about that reason because she had been hoping they would never find out about this. This just added to things they needed to discuss with Toni. While Steve knew he hadn't explicitly told his team a lot of what had happened to him back in the 40's it was in his file. Natasha and Clint didn't talk about Budapest as a general rule but anything that was pertinent to their work with the Avengers was in a file for them to see. Ditto with Bruce and the things that had happened in Harlem with the Hulk and Thor was eager as ever to tell them about what had happened on Asgard. But Toni wouldn't talk to you about her life so you would go for the failsafe of reading her file except she regularly wiped it so the only things you would find there was the stuff that Toni had already told you. And it just couldn't fly for very much longer for while some of them had gotten a handle on Toni's ever-changing personality (read Natasha, Bruce & Phil) the others hadn't and they had no explanation for her quirks until they saw these movies. But Steve didn't know how to broach the subject with Toni because she was an enigma and he was never sure whether something he thought was tactful would send her into one of her fits of ill temper.

"_Go look for her," Raza ordered two more of his men who ran off to the cell cave. When they reached the door one of the shouted through the hatch over the buzzing of a drill, "Yinsen! Yinsen! Stark!" _

"_You need to say something back to him," Toni whispered as Yinsen was tightening the bolts on the suit._

"_He's speaking Hungarian. I don't…" Yinsen began._

"Do you speak Hungarian Friend Toni?" Thor asked.

"Now, yes," Toni answered, "then, no I didn't so we just had to wing it really."

"_Then you'll have to speak Hungarian," Toni said quickly_

"_Okay! I know…" Yinsen said thinking hard._

"_What do you know?" Toni encouraged as Yinsen came up with something and began shouting back to the man at the door. The same door which had been set up with an explosive booby trap across the side that moved when it opened. _

"Always another plan Toni," Clint said impressed, "works as a failsafe in case they tried to break in and was a calculated risk for breaking out because it was much more likely that someone would try to break in once you vanished off their computer screens."

"I did the math," Toni agreed, "and there was a 99% chance that someone would come and open the door. Percentages were tight for how many so I made the bomb pretty powerful in case it ended up being one of the larger numbers."

_Eventually the two terrorists tired of shouting through a door and one of them pulled the crank handle that opened it only to trigger the explosives and send the pair flying back due to a fiery ball hitting them head on._

"Effective," Natasha complimented.

_The camera showing the cell faded to static as the dust from the explosion blew back into Toni's face. Raza quickly ordered everyone he had available to get to the cell and apprehend the pair. _

"_How'd that work?" Toni asked._

"_Oh my goodness!" Yinsen exclaimed, "It worked alright!"_

"_That's what I do," Toni informed him._

"He was a little sceptical that the explosive compound on the door trick would still work but the thing is it's actually not very common for most captors are smart enough not to put an engineer and weapons developer in a room full of explosives and expect her to as she was told just because she was put through a little pain," Toni scoffed.

"_Let me finish this," Yinsen said attempting to go back to bolting Toni in but she had realised that now there had been an explosion the others were coming so it would do them no good, "initialise power sequence."_

"Probably not the best way to test completely new technology which is massively beyond anything that was on the market then or since," Bruce said wincing, "but all those comments you've been making about necessity certainly apply here."

"_Okay," Yinsen agreed dropping the drill and heading over to the basic computer they had been provided with. _

"_Now!" Toni snapped beginning to get nervous about when more terrorists would get to their location. She had no idea how close the next nearest group had been when the explosion had gone off but she hoped it was as far away as the camera room which she had guessed was near the entrance to the cave._

"_Tell me. Tell me," Yinsen said quickly waiting for Toni's instructions._

"He was just a doctor of medicine so you had to do all the computer programming," Clint speculated and Toni confirmed it with a swift nod.

"_Function 11," Toni instructed, "tell me when you see a progress bar. It should be up right now. Talk to me, tell me when you see it."_

"_Yes, I got it," Yinsen confirmed as soon as the bar popped up on the screen._

"At least that's gotten started," Natasha said although she was worried about how slow the bar was moving. The computer looked like a pile of old junk as well there was no guarantee it would get the whole suit programmed fast enough to be of any use.

"_Press Control 'I'," Toni continued._

"'_I', got it," Yinsen said as soon as he had done it._

"'_I'! 'Enter'!" Toni emphasised, "'I' and then 'Enter.' Come over here and button me up."_

_Yinsen quickly abandoned the computer and made his way back over to Toni as the terrorists' shouts could begin to be heard as they pelted through the corridors of the cave at full speed._

"_Okay. All right," Yinsen muttered to himself as he did as Toni asked._

"_Every other hex bolt," Toni informed him cutting some corners to save them some time. _

"_They're coming!" Yinsen shouted._

"_Nothing pretty just get it done," Toni said calmly._

"It must have been hard to keep your cool with all that bearing down on you," Bruce said sympathetically.

"You would know," Toni said with a bittersweet smile.

_Yinsen reiterated his previous statement as the background noise grew louder but Toni kept telling him to focus on the task at hand._

_The progress bar on the computer was about halfway across now as Toni reminded Yinsen of the plan, "Make sure the checkpoints are clear before you follow me out, okay?"_

"_We need more time," Yinsen realised suddenly whilst watching the progress bar and turned back to face Toni, "hey! I'm gonna go buy you some time."_

"дерьмо," Natasha cursed saying what they all were thinking. It was clear in her tone what the word had meant even to those that didn't speak Russian.

**A/n: Steve stop taking up all my commentary; had to rewrite bits of this because I made too much of it Cap orientated /lol/ And he still got the longest reflection so far in this story. The next chapter is the last part in Afghanistan! WHOO!**


	32. Welcome Back

Chapter 32 – Welcome Back

**A/n: Once again thank you all for lovely comments on this story and now it's time to get out of Afghanistan. Hopefully I'll keep up my Monday tradition and get this up sooner than usual :D I think you guys will like ReadPaxJoy's prompted one-shot :D **

**youwannabekate: First again :) Toni is always BAMF she just shows it sometimes more than others. But yeah it'll be fun for the Avengers to see her angry. It was short because you want a chapter a day /shrugs/ And yeah it was really about Steve that chapter because he wouldn't leave me alone. The sequel is whatever Science Husbands is in fem!Tony verse ;) But there's a parallel one that is IronHawk and an IronWidow and IronThunder one shot series that will be updated when the plot bunny strikes**

**paisley15: I know, unfortunately Yinsen's death is really important but it's so sad and I will cry whilst watching it… again. Maybe! You might jinx me and I'll write an abysmal one**

**Post U Later: Yeah, this story is going to be very long but that just means more chances for people to win one-shots and previews under certain conditions I come up with.**

**whitetigerwolf: Almost had me but we have 30 reviews to go until we hit that point unfortunately. **

**Dragones: I know poor thing; at least she'll have some relief until we get to Stane being a traitor because there's a section that isn't so bad for her.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked it and I hope you enjoy this one just as much**

**Tanin: I'm really glad you like it and wow if it's starting to take people a day it must be getting long.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Yeah the brick of words will become important so maybe you should read all of it hmm… I think it would be yay because no more Toni torture for now. And yes I did, because I'm awesome :) Russian curses are the best way to end chapters**

**ladyofstayne: Here's my update for you :) **

**nessa11997: You're welcome :) **

**Booklover2526: I know it was a really touching moment and I was like oh Yinsen :( I'm glad that you think so :) **

**TryingNotToFall: Hey Sarah :) I'm so glad that you changed your mind because of this story; it's really flattering. And you're welcome!**

**ReadPaxJoy: I'm glad you loved it and that you're so excited that you managed to win :) The next one is at 350 reviews so who knows :D We get relief from Toni being hurt until. Oops! I'm corrupting your little cousin :D Oh well, running with laptops is good exercise **

**GuestPerson: Thank you! And maybe; I'm not sure if I'm including that as a plot point at this point :D **

**Squee the magical bunny: No, there is no IH in this story which is for a specific reason which will be proposed by Toni and later confirmed by Amora. Plus the awkwardness with the million different actors who have played Bruce which is kind of distracting for me.**

"_Stick to the plan!" Toni said firmly attempting to talk Yinsen out of doing something stupidly brave but he was already running out of the door and he picked up one of the guns of the fallen terrorists and ran off ignoring Toni's second shout of, "stick to the plan!"_

"This is not going to end well," Bruce predicted sadly. He too had noticed some similarities between himself and Yinsen and knew that if something really bad had happened to him it was likely Toni still hadn't forgiven herself. He quite liked the other man himself from what he had seen of him so far but he had a feeling if he had gotten out to his family then Toni would have insisted that Yinsen take a job at Stark Industries to support his family better and they would have met him by now. Besides on Toni's list of charities hadn't there been a Yinsen Charitable Trust beneath the Maria Stark Foundation? Any of this singularly would have been worrying but taken together they painted a picture that suggested that whilst buying the pair time Yinsen was either extremely badly wounded or actually died.

_Yinsen began to fire in the air as he ran out attempting to draw all attention to him so nobody would think to check on Toni until there had been enough time for the suit to fully boot up. Toni attempted to shout after her friend one more time even though she knew he had drawn attention to himself already. _

"Your friend is very brave Friend Toni," Thor said respectfully.

"Thank you," Toni responded softly, "he would have appreciated you thinking that." Her use of past tense confirmed their suspicions that Yinsen was no longer alive to receive the compliment himself.

_As Toni anxiously watched the progress bar Yinsen continued firing up into the air scaring the few terrorists that has been coming to investigate the cave._

"Why didn't they send more to try and apprehend you?" Steve queried.

"My guess is they plan to set up an ambush at the entrance which is of course a bad move in this situation but otherwise would have been one of the best plans they could have come up with," Natasha guessed, "the Iron Man suit despite how primitive it is at this stage should be more than enough to blast out of there." There was a silent 'I hope' tagged onto the end of that statement as Natasha didn't know if the time in the cave they had been shown in the cave so far totalled three months or whether Toni had been caught this time and had to make a second attempt at escaping later on which would mean even worse tortures would have been inflicted upon her for the attempt.

_Once he reached the entrance still yelling and firing into the air Yinsen came face to face with a blockade of terrorists set up at the cave mouth all with guns levelled at him._

Toni's eyes were clamped shut once again not wanting to see anything from this point up until her past self was back in the hands of the army again because this would all be too painful. It didn't matter that if it had been in a faked action movie it would have been pretty epic viewing it had been the first time she had ever killed someone in person.

_Finally the power bar on the computer hit the 100% mark and the lights in the cave began to flicker out as the Iron Man suit began to power up._

"Not going to solve your vision problems but at least it creates some for the other side," Clint said.

"Plus," Toni interjected, "I needed all the electricity I could get to power the suit," she had opened her eyes realising that she wasn't actually going to see Yinsen get shot and that actually keeping her eyes shut for that long was probably an unrealistic goal. She hadn't been able to resist the urge to watch the film to see if there was anything in it that hadn't happened around her that she would find out about through watching it. She had never known the details of Obie's plans for her and maybe this film would give her them.

_Five more terrorists approached the cell giving the two corpses on the ground nervous looks not knowing what else Toni had in reserve. The leader shoved two of his men forward and they inched slowly into the cell too nervous to move any faster into a place that could be their doom._

"They should be nervous since they've managed to make Toni mad at them," Bruce said bitterly. His eyes had taken on an almost permanent green glow for the duration of this section of the movie.

"It's not a good idea," Steve agreed who had the misfortune of being the person who got on Toni's last nerve too often because in her fits of bad temper she took any slight mention of Howard as a slight at her and found his gentleman like behaviour misogynistic and demeaning even if it just meant that she had earned his respect.

_The bravest stepped deeper into the room as Toni's hand within the glove of the suit flexed and then tightened back into a fist. The terrorist was inspecting plans and parts on one of the worktables when he turned and came up against the suit his eyes widening. The next thing his companions knew he was flying across the room as he was battered with machine gun fire._

"Badass Toni is out and pissed off," Clint joked earning a teasing glare from Toni who was actually grateful for the distraction especially since it was kind of amusing.

_The men who had waited outside the door instantly began to fire into the room now terrified about what Toni would do to them if she found them if she was capable of doing that with what they thought was simply with a machine gun but stopped firing when all they could hear was bullets hitting metal and there was still no sign of Toni._

"I knew they were idiots but firing something as fast as a bullet into a room full of explosive chemicals is a new level of stupid," Bruce scoffed.

_Just as they began to talk about entering the room the Iron Man suit appeared in the door immediately noticed by the man at the back as the two at the front were slammed forcefully into the cave walls. _

"Ouch!" Natasha said coldly without any of the sympathy that usually came with the word. There was no need to feel sorry for terrorist monsters who tortured people because it was fun not because it was an absolute necessity. And even then you shouldn't be able to enjoy the torture.

_The only terrorist left attempted to fire on the suit but all of the bullets were deflected and Toni stepped forward and struck him down with a punch to the face. When she straightened up the bulky suit could be seen in its full glory with flames burning beneath the arm guards and the arc reactor light shining through the hole in the suit. _

"I just remembered what you said about it running something big for fifteen minutes," Bruce said blanching, "was the suit draining the arc reactor?"

"I wasn't in it for long enough to really find out," Toni said, "besides draining all the power from the lights in the cave gave me enough for another five to ten minutes anyway which was plenty of time to get out when none of their weapons would work against the suit."

_Whilst she was still under heavy machine gun fire Toni just kept marching down the corridor unimpeded by the bullets. As soon as she got uncomfortably close the terrorists began to scream and pelt away at full tilt to try and avoid her guns. Any who were brave enough to charge her were brushed away as if they were ragdolls. _

"I suppose it looks so easy because it's brand new," Natasha mused, "and nobody figures out a suitable defence against Annie's inventions straight after she builds it unless she messed it up on purpose."

_One of the attacking terrorists even took a hit to the head that was hard they were completely flipped over before landing with a thump back on the cave floor. As she kept walking men retreated before her and fled for one of the cut off points and slammed the door shut cutting off one of their own._

"No sense of loyalty," Steve snarled. In his opinion that was one of the greatest crimes that a person could commit. He didn't actually find it possible to leave someone behind in a combat situation even if it would be at the cost of his own life. He knew many of the other members of the Avengers had similarly cherished loyalty including Toni because she had so little of it directed at her over the years.

_The man who was trapped with Toni began pounding on the door trying to get his comrades to let him get through but they cared much more about themselves than about him and so they listened with their guns aimed at the door as they heard the man scream and then stop abruptly._

"You dealt with him quickly because they abandoned him didn't you," Bruce speculated and received a quiet, "yeah," in conformation from Toni.

_Then Toni immediately started in on the door the metal bucking under the massive force that Toni was exerting on it and it only took her three hits to bust the door off its hinges and reveal the now fleeing men. Toni swung her metal arm into the next attacker and it was with such force that it lodged itself into the rock face._

"I take it you solved that problem with later models of your suits Friend Toni because I've never seen that happen on any of our missions,"Thor said.

"It was only because of the bulkiness of that particular suit," Toni explained, "it doesn't happen with my newest suit because their more aerodynamic."

_She tugged as hard as she could repeatedly on the stuck arm in an attempt to dislodge it as the nearest terrorist to her scrambled to her feet and fled so he wouldn't get hit again. Eventually another man noticed that she was stuck and raised his hand gun on her but his bullet ricocheted off of the Iron Man helmet and killed him instantly._

"All other bullets are ricocheting off long distance and he decides a short range pistol is the best way to go," Clint scoffed rolling his eyes, "idiot definitely deserved his fate if he's that stupid. That's like the dictionary definition of 'too stupid to live,' demonstrated for us right there."

_Toni turned her head towards the dead man as she pulled her arm free taking a fair bit of the rock wall away with it before continuing to storm through the caves. Raza was getting prepared for Toni's arrival as he loaded a canister into one of his guns._

"Showdown," Clint muttered quietly not wanting the girls to here because he knew that they would disapprove of him making light of such a serious situation. In fact he was pretty sure none of the others would find his way of coping funny but it was the best way he had. Clint was on a very basic level someone who loved to have fun even if during his life he hadn't had very many opportunities to do so. This was probably why he now got along so well with Toni after talking to her as they both shared joking attitudes which sometimes got them into a fair amount of trouble. That and the fact that she had built him a Loki themed archery range that made her the best friend other than Natasha he had ever had. And that was only due to the fact that he had known Natasha longer and he knew Toni had the potential to equal Toni in friend status sooner rather than later.

_Raza worked forward to stand at the entrance to the cave raising his gun to shoot Toni as she came storming out of the corridors spotting Yinsen who was lying bleeding out on a pile of sacks._

"As much pain as possible," Natasha snapped, "they don't know the meaning of putting someone out of their misery."

"Yeah," Bruce said, "if they put as many bullets into them as they think they probably did he's not got long left. His poor family!"

"_Yinsen!" Toni shouted clearly upset but Yinsen was more interested in protecting Toni, "look out!"_

And this was why Natasha did her best to avoid getting close to people in general because if they were in danger they could distract you from your goals and get you killed because you were more interested in helping them than helping yourself. She had lived by that philosophy throughout her early life as she watched people who she had cared about from the Red Room get killed whilst fighting whilst she kept on surviving. But Clint had gotten under her skin when he saved her life and she had begun not to care about her emotions being compromised when it was in order to save Clint's life because he had chosen to save her life. He had seen something in her that nobody else had and that had been the thing that had made her into a better person because she knew that for once somebody believed in her. Then she had been assigned to Toni which had been a massive mistake on Fury's part as it would ultimately be the catalyst for the resignation of his three agents with common sense. She had gotten a taste for a fairly normal life and found out that Toni Stark was mostly a mask within a mask within a dozen more masks which was something she could relate to. Plus it had been nice to go shopping and drinking with a female friend instead of just doing the drinking with Clint watching or vice versa as SHIELD agents in company were only allowed to have half the members imbibing alcohol unless it was for a mission in case a situation arose where someone needed to have complete clarity of thought. It was ridiculous when you only planned to have a couple of vodkas each which wasn't enough to drop a Russian and someone who had spent the vast majority of his early life in the circus but Fury wasn't the sort who bended the rules unless something was against his moral code. His moral code seemed to allow everything under the sun so this wasn't very common but it had come into play with the missile the World Security Council had attempted to deploy on London. As far as Natasha could remember that was the first time Fury had ever blatantly gone against one of their orders even when he hadn't been happy with their decision.

_Raza fired the missile he had loaded at the suit but Toni simply turned the suit and it went careering off into the wall behind him. In response she powered up her own much higher powered missile within the arm bracket and shot it at Raza. It hit the crates behind his head and he collapsed to the ground._

"Thank you for taking that psychopath down Toni," Steve said pleased that the man who he had instantly felt contempt for because he had no qualms with maiming and torturing people and being entirely comfortable with murder which even Natasha couldn't claim although she tried her best to hide that fact.

_As Raza was now not able to be a nuisance Toni made her way over to Yinsen who muttered, "Stark," weakly. Toni lifted her faceplate for a better view of Yinsen's injuries and obviously realised they were bad but kept trying to give him hope, "Come on. We got to go. Move for me, come on. We got a plan. We're gonna stick to it."_

"I guess hope really is important," Clint acknowledged remembering a comment Toni had made a while back when they were still watching the Avengers movie with all of them fighting together for the first time.

"_This was always the plan, Stark," Yinsen informed Toni._

"What?!" the group excluding Toni exclaimed feeling sad for the death of a man that they should have met but never managed to because of a group of terrorists who had better be burning in Hell. Thor was silently planning to call in a favour with Hel to make anyone from the group and anyone else who made Toni so suspicious of her own teammates at times have an abysmal time in the realm of Hel.

"_Come on, you're going to go see your family," Toni insisted, "get up!"_

"_My family is dead," Yinsen revealed, "I'm going to see them now, Stark."_

"So that's why he was so keen to make the sacrifice play," Steve realised, "he didn't really have anything left but you Toni and he wanted to be with his family."

"If your family is a good one you should do all that you can to be with it," Toni responded weakly, "just because my family wasn't a good one doesn't mean I didn't realise that. Didn't mean I liked it though. He was the first person who saw Rhodey's unintentional truth that I was more than what I appeared to be and I had more potential than even I realised."

_Toni's face darkened understanding his point. "It's okay," Yinsen assured her, "I want this. I want this."_

"But he did care about you," Bruce realised, "he didn't want to go out without you knowing that he actually wanted to do so."

_Toni sighed deeply before accepting his statement and smiled at him, "thank you for saving me."_

"_Don't waste it," Yinsen asked her, "don't waste your life."_

"We always wondered what the push was to make you give up working in the weapons industry knowing the stock crash that was about to happen to you and that the military would probably end up suing you for breach of contract," Natasha said softly, "you were fulfilling someone's last wish for you to do something I now know you always were planning to do eventually if you could get away with it. Oh Annie…"

_Yinsen's last few breaths were frantic before it stopped altogether and he died finally getting his wish. Toni's face was set in a dark frown as she turned away from Yinsen's body towards the cave mouth._

"And now everyone out there is going to wish that they didn't piss off _the _Toni Stark," Clint stated matter-of-factly as the others nodded in agreement. Even they had never pushed Toni to her absolute limit but they figured that if the Ten Rings weren't there already they had breached that line with the death of Yinsen even if it had been what he had wanted in the end. Toni just couldn't forgive them for it and she was probably right not to because forgiving all your enemies just gives them another chance to attack you. That was one of the first rules you learned in spy training especially if you were young when you went into it because any sort of blind trust or faith in humanity had to be almost completely eradicated to make you an efficient agent. Some of the methods SHIELD used to do it were barbaric though and Natasha with all her experiences in the Red Room behind her had been campaigning against Fury to abolish them with Clint, Phil and surprising Hill and Sitwell backing them up but Fury wouldn't budge on the issue. He saw ruthless, emotionless and damaged agents as a better option than those who would ever have some faith in teammates and wouldn't backstab other members of their side without proof that they had done something to wrong them. Breeding a culture of people comfortably with murder was what Fury had really been attempting all these years and it wasn't something that any of the Agents in the room had thought was necessary. There more than enough cold-blooded killers in the world and as they later learned on others too.

_Every terrorist who had been positioned outside had grabbed a hold of a gun which was directed at the cave mouth as several of their hands shook with fear at what might be coming. The footsteps of the Iron Man suit echoed as the suit thundered into view causing some of the men to back up out of pure instinct._

"May I congratulate you on a very intimidating entrance Lady Toni?" Thor asked with a smile.

"Of course," Toni said puzzled. She was pretty sure that was a compliment but it didn't make it any less confusing. Maybe it was something to do with his so called fascination with warrior women that he shared with his brother. She wondered if that had anything to do with Sif.

_After a pause they began to shout out in a variety of different languages and fired on the suit but of course all the bullets ricocheted away flying in as many directions as was physically possible. Once they realised it was having no effect and stopped Toni muttered darkly, "my turn!" before unleashing massive tongues of flame from the suit._

"I get that your weapons on the later suits are more refined but that is much more intimidating," Phil commented.

"Yes, well it's also much more dangerous in city areas and when I'm working with people," Toni said, "it was fine in Afghanistan when everything around I wanted to burn and it wouldn't spread but in New York or Cali it would be an extremely bad idea."

_The men clamoured to get away as one after another they were consumed by the flames but that wasn't Toni's primary objective. She was using the tongues of flame to set fire to their stockpile of her weapons which began to burn furiously._

Bruce smiled upon seeing this. Even whilst she was still technically fighting her way out of the captive situation Toni was devoting herself to ridding the bad guys of having any of her weapons to use against innocents. That was the Toni that he knew all over.

_Toni walked steadily through the camp making sure she caught every tent as some men rushed to the more heavy-duty weapons that they had available to attempt to overwhelm her. The greater barrage of bullets did appear to be making it harder for Toni to walk although they still weren't doing anything more than denting the metal. One bullet managed to hit a crucial joint though and Toni had to use her hands to steady herself as she hit the ground._

This was getting a little too close for the Avengers liking but they knew that she got out and at this stage they had no more doubts that this was just a first attempt at escaping after all the emphasis this escape was being given.

_But Toni pushed herself back up onto her feet and shot another burst of flame towards an untouched tent and ended up reeling from the effects because it triggered a series of explosions from the bombs the flames had consumed. But as it began to get too extreme for the basic suit to handle Toni activated a switch that started the suits boosters and it took off._

"The suit you built in a cave could fly!" Phil exclaimed shocked.

"Well it was more propelled; it couldn't really fly but it was enough to get me out of there away from the explosions," Toni told him.

_She flew out of the top of the explosion and curved around in an arc before plummeting to the ground when the juice ran out and she hit the sand with a sickening thump which had to have hurt._

"Ouch!" Natasha said this time actually sounding sympathetic, "I do not envy you the suit if you had to make landings like that when you were first trying out the thing. It can't have been easy to learn how to fly it especially since you had to work out everything as you went."

_The debris of the suit was scattered across parts of the desert as Toni groaned from the sheer impact with the ground because sand could be incredibly compact at times especially from hitting it at that speed. She neatly shook off the arm bracers and reached up and removed the helmet as well. "Not bad," she said still reeling as her lip began to bleed._

"I agree with Nat," Clint said wincing, "that looks really sore!"

_The scene changed to see Toni protecting her head with a covering having stripped down to just the tank top to stop any heatstroke. She was wandering through the desert obviously hoping that at some point she would come across a friendly who could take her back to an army base._

"Now there are the problems now that you've broken out such as finding someone else and not succumbing to lack of sustenance, dehydration and heatstroke all of which would easily have killed you just the same as the Ten Rings," Bruce said worriedly.

_She kept up a jogging pace obviously trying to keep her heart rate up so that she wouldn't pass out otherwise she surely would have stuck to walking instead. Finally as she stumbled over the crest of yet another sand dune in an endless series of them a helicopter could be heard overhead._

"They didn't stop looking for you," Steve said shocked but relieved, "I guess it wasn't too long then because the military generally stop looking for you after a while as they give you up as a lost cause."

_Two of the machines flew overhead as Toni looked up at them calling out to them happily and waving her hand in the air._

"You really wanted to go home," Phil said with a weak smile.

_One of the helicopters came in for a landing as Toni finally gave into exhaustion and collapsed to her knees. As soon as it landed four soldiers/airmen came sprinting towards Toni one of them being Rhodey._

"That's a bit of a coincidence," Natasha said surprised.

"Wouldn't quit looking for me," Toni said with a smile.

"_How was the 'fun-vee?'" Rhodey quipped as he came close enough to Toni to be heard over the powering down of the helicopter blades. _

Another group of people watching this movie might have been appalled that Rhodey's first reaction to finding his best friend who had been missing for an indeterminate amount of time and had probably been presumed dead for quite a while was to make a lame joke but the Avengers plus Phil knew that this was the best way to get Toni used to being back in her usual life.

_Toni let out a brief laugh that was more like a sigh as that was all she could manage to do. Rhodey knelt down next to her putting his hand on her bloodied shoulder telling her, "Next time, you ride with me, okay?"_

"He must have been really worried," Steve said recognising Rhodey's expression as pure unadulterated relief that he had found his friend alive and not just her body. Perhaps the only thing that would have been even more awful in some ways would have been never having found her at all.

_It was a mark of how exhausted and starved for any form of physical contact that wasn't negative Toni was that she let herself be pulled into a one armed hug by Rhodey and she didn't even try and pull away from him._

Natasha especially realised that Toni seemed to actually be enjoying the contact which meant that she could enjoy positive physical contact and yet she still stiffened whenever one of the clapped her on the back and tried to hug her. That was when Natasha decided that her next goal had to be getting Toni comfortable enough with physical contact that she could accept it and maybe eventually initiate it although she knew full well that would be a long way off if it ever happened at all. But Natasha was using Toni's philosophy that you should always have hope against her in a way although in the end it would be for her own benefit.

_The next shot showed Toni sitting on a doctor's table arguing with him about her arc reactor and slapping his hands away every time he tried to touch her as Rhodey looked on worriedly._

_Finally Toni appeared to have had more than enough of the doctor's comments and she snapped, "do not even attempt to pretend you know more about the device in my chest that's keeping my alive than you do because I fucking invented it now get your hands off me. You've fitted me with his damn sling and you're not getting away with any more than that. Now OUT!"_

"If I ever make Toni really angry please shoot me before she can get to me," Clint whispered to Natasha.

"Only if doing so won't get her mad at me because I'm not dying for you over your own stupidity," Natasha muttered back, "because messing with Toni so that she's that angry with you is an act of pure stupidity. We're the former common sense of SHIELD as Toni appears to have been putting it so have some and never make her lose it that badly."

_The doctor fled the room at her shout and Rhodey entered handing her a pair of high heels and a dry cleaning bag. "I figured you'd want some of your own clothes to wear now that we've finally run you through all the checks we were required to do so whilst I was telling Piper we had found you I asked him to express these over," Rhodey explained._

"Now he's definitely in your good books," Phil said with a smile now the captivity period was over. He knew they'd all be able to relax much better for a while as Toni wasn't in any immediate danger from torture and death threats.

"_Thank you Rhodey," Toni said making her way into the bathroom to get changed as Rhodey shouted after her, "I would have made them let me keep searching for you forever you know. I never believed anyone would actually be able to kill you somehow."_

"_I know Rhodey," Toni said with a slight smile, "and thank you again."_

**A/n: 5.6k with a bonus scene with Rhodey and Toni. Have I made you love Mondays yet due to the awesome updates :) Plus it's earlier than some of the 3.1k ones :D **


	33. A Controversial Press Conference

Chapter 33 – A Controversial Press Conference

**A/n: I'm really glad that everyone was enjoying my extra-long chapter from yesterday. This one probably won't equal it because I have less time to write on a Tuesday.**

**Squee the Magical Bunny: You're welcome :)  
**

**SparkleNicole: I'm glad you liked it and I think those scenes are going to be more fun to write than the Afghanistan ones. And I'm very flattered that you think this is the best one out there.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm trying to keep this story a lyrics free zone don't tempt me :D Random Toni is very amusing and we have the brief mentions of Howard coming up soon. Yeah, Toni really hates hospitals just like me :)**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Yes! Victory! Someone else who now likes Mondays :) Hello America indeed! :D **

**daddygirl52092: I'm glad you liked it; have some more :)  
**

**Dragones: Here you go, have some more :D  
**

**whitetigerwolf: I'm really glad you liked it. Enjoy!**

**Tanin: I'm glad that it's enjoyable enough that it's still readable from the very beginning :) And I hope you enjoy those parts when I write them. It's so cool the sheer amount of countries all my viewers and reviewers are from.**

**Littlest1: That's one of the best compliments an author can receive so thank you very much and I'm glad you're enjoying this story :) **

**IAMAWESOMESOAREU: Thank you for your lovely (if slightly creepy) review and I'm glad you're enjoying my story :) Iron Man 2 is straight after this one ends.**

**Booklover2526: I'm glad you liked the additional scene :) And I've come to love writing Clint so I'm glad you liked his part :D **

**nessa11997: I'm glad and you're welcome :) **

**LibraryGirl19: I'm very flattered that I'm currently your favourite author and I'm glad you like the story. The problem with updating every day is that I have to compromise on length of chapters to do so.**

**Post U Later: Yeah, Phil is totally going to regret that thought momentarily :) **

**Harm Marie: I'm glad!**

**ReadPaxJoy: I'm glad you liked the Hel and Thor thing because I didn't know if people had noticed it :) Your oneshot should be up tomorrow I think if I stay on schedule.**

"Now I see why you still trust him," Natasha said softly, "even after what he did to you." She often felt bad at times about the fact that she had accused Toni of letting Rhodey steal her suit. Her friend had told her in confidence when they met up afterwards that yes she had been training Rhodey in how to operate the suit but he had taken it from her. She hadn't just handed it over because she hadn't been able to talk him out of considering it as a weapon that the military should be allowed unlimited access to yet and she didn't want that. It was how the whole mess with Hammer had begun and Toni hadn't needed another incident whilst she was dying draining her life away. Rhodey had arguably endangered Toni's life in more ways than one by losing his faith in her that he appeared to have had at this point in her life.

_The scene changed to show a US air force jet touching down on a runway as Piper watched ringing his hands nervously with Happy standing stoically behind him next to the car. _

"He was worried," Bruce said quietly, "no surprises there then."

_As the rear hatch descended Rhodey helped Toni up from a wheelchair that she had doubtless been coerced into using. Piper watched closely as Toni descended the platform with her arm through Rhodey's, her arm was still in a sling and she was in the heels and dress Piper had sent over to Afghanistan for her._

"It was a good thing that dress was strapless because anything else would have been hard to get on with the sling that they insisted I should wear," Toni said obviously exasperated at what she saw as the ridiculousness of making her wear a sling for a 'minor injury.'

The others sighed similarly exasperated at Toni's total lack of care about her own safety but they knew at that point the constant pain from the arc reactor would already have been affecting her by then so she really wouldn't consider it that serious. Actually that was something to think about. How many times had Toni been severely injured after a battle and had brushed it off because it caused her less pain than the arc reactor did on a daily basis. Bruce was beginning to think up plans for an enforced rule for medical checks after every mission for if they we were separating from SHIELD's system of rules then they would have to come up with their own. If he told everyone else the plan the vote they made on the subject would make Toni abide by it even if she wouldn't like it at all. But if you couldn't be responsible for your own health then someone would have to be responsible in your stead.

"_Watch it, coming up here," Rhodey told Toni not loosening his grip on her arm as paramedics rolled forward a gurney but Toni shrugged it off, "Are you kidding me with this? Get rid of them."_

"Toni…" Clint sighed.

"What?!" Toni exclaimed, "I was standing on my own two feet and I certainly didn't need to be treated like an invalid. And god knows the press would analyse it to hell. Besides I had no intentions of trusting another doctor ever again. I didn't want to have to cope with all the babbling about the reactor which would inevitably become common knowledge. Sure let's give every person in the world who wants to kill me for things I did or my father did an easy out. Hey! Isn't there a thing in her chest that I can pull out and she'll die? That makes my job so much easier. Bruce only snuck past my shields because he is so damn trustworthy plus he can actually keep up with me and understands what I'm babbling on about."

_Rhodey waved the team of paramedics away giving Toni a worried look as she walked towards a smiling Piper. "Hmm," she contemplated, "your eyes are red. A few tears for your long-lost boss?"_

"How long were you gone Friend Toni?" Thor inquired but he received no answer from Toni. She didn't even acknowledge the fact that Thor had spoken and they guessed that meant it would probably come up soon.

"_Tears of joy," Piper said matter-of-factly._

"Wait…" Natasha said not understanding why Piper was being so positive. It didn't fit in with their witty rapport at all and they had already seen the evidence earlier on in the movie that their teasing had developed long before Afghanistan.

"_I hate job hunting," he concluded._

"And there's the punchline I was expecting," Natasha said relieved causing the others to laugh. It was gradually becoming easier to do so without the tinge of bitterness that had infected every laugh since Toni had been captured.

"_Yeah, vacation's over," Toni told him the humour gone from her tone._

"You were planning something you knew a lot of people wouldn't like," Phil observed knowing what was just about to come up, "so I guess you really meant although not in the way Piper thought you did."

_The pair clambered into the back of the car fastening their seatbelts and Happy asked, "Where to, ma'am?"_

"_Take us to the hospital, please, Happy," Piper attempted to order but Toni cut him off with a swift, "no!"_

"Typical," Clint said earning another glare from Toni.

"_No?" Piper said thoroughly confused, "Toni, you have to go to the hospital."_

"_No is a complete answer," Toni said not accepting any further coercion from Piper having made up her mind. Piper of course wasn't going to give up very easily having worked with Toni for so long and attempted it again, "The doctor has to look at you."_

"And that's the final nail in the coffin," Phil said, "Toni's going to pull out the big guns now."

"_I don't have to do anything," Toni told him firmly, "I've been in captivity for three months."_

Steve blanched upon hearing that statement and the others were similarly affected (excluding Natasha and Phil who had already known how long she had been there and had gotten over their shock when they came to terms with how long she had been in the cave being so badly tortured) Bruce's fists were digging alarmingly deep into the couch and the others were pretty sure the skin around them was a faint shade of green rather than its natural colour. Clint looked ready to shoot men who were already dead but that was of little consequence to the angry archer. He just needed to shoot someone who had been responsible in some way for Toni's capture and subsequent torture. Lightning was crackling in the air around Thor and while the others wanted to stop him before he destroyed the TV screen they were watching the movie in they figured it wouldn't be the safest thing to do. Approaching an angry Thor who was producing lightning was always a bad idea. So, Natasha, Phil and Toni attempted to soothe the other four members of their team with promises that all of the main people responsible for the kidnapping had been dealt with and anybody minor who was in some way responsible had probably been ignorant of the true consequences of their actions. It only worked when Toni pointed out that the only one with a major part left in causing her kidnapping was Toni herself and they could shoot her if they wanted. That managed to calm them down.

"_There are two things I want to do," Toni continued, "I want an American cheeseburger… and the other…"_

"_That's enough of that," Piper cut her off but Toni continued on not phased in the least by Piper's comment, "it's not what you think. I want you to call for a press conference now."_

"You don't have a good track record with press conferences within this time period do you Toni?" Phil laughed.

"Well," Toni said, "it's your own fault of annoying me right before I went in front of the cameras because if you hadn't I wouldn't have been so flustered by Christine and I wouldn't have been annoyed enough to reveal the information."

"I see your point," Phil conceded knowing there was no point getting into yet another debate about that day with Toni.

"_Call for a press conference?" Piper said still confused not knowing why Toni would want that of all things._

"_Yeah," Toni said simply and ignoring Piper's, "what on Earth for?" she turned to address Happy, "Hogan, drive. Cheeseburger first!"_

"You really do get cravings after fighting your way out of situations I guess," Bruce laughed remembering what Toni had said about her craving for shawarma after she had come back from the dead during the Battle for Manhattan.

"Especially since it's hard to talk you into eating anything any other day," Steve added, "let alone doing so at a regular time. I've kind of given up on the regular time issue at this point though."

"Finally!" Toni exclaimed, "it was only a matter of time thank god! I had hoped that would be it."

_The car pulled away from the runway and in the next shot it was pulling up at the conference as people standing on the pavement applauded her arrival. _

"I can probably count on one hand the amount of people there who were genuinely happy to see me back and two of them were in the car with me," Toni scoffed earning her a few pitying looks which she dismissed with a roll of her eyes. It wasn't like she gave a damn about more than the five people who might have given a damn about her anyway.

_Obie stood in the crowd applauding the most fiercely and then he ran forward as the car drew to a stop laughing, "Look at this!" He pulled the door open and Toni clambered out wiping any remnants of sauce from her face elegantly with a handkerchief. Obie pulled her into a hug that looked very awkward with a boisterous, "Toni!"_

"He should know better if he knew you for so long and so well," Natasha said bitterly upset that Toni had been taken in by the false affection the man showed for her at least a little just because it was the only affection she had gotten since Peggy left her when she was young. She didn't know how to tell if it was false or not because she didn't have enough experience with physical affection.

"_We were going to meet at the hospital," Obie exclaimed the picture of honest concern._

"_No, I'm fine," Toni deflected as Obie continued to gush over her more interested in the Burger King bag Happy was bringing her with a second cheeseburger in it. _

"At least you go through with your sudden cravings unlike some people," Clint said with a glare at Natasha. There had been several occasions when Clint had to travel for hours after not having slept for days to collect something Natasha had been craving after a mission only for them to get there and Nat would change her mind and just want McDonald's. It was one of the most annoying things that seemed to be more common in women than in men. One of the few as Toni and Nat were fond of reminding him about.

"_You had to have a burger, yeah?" Obie said suddenly disapproving of Toni's quirks despite his welcoming actions only moments before._

"Like I said," Natasha said as she contemplated whether it was worth hitting Clint over the head with something heavy for his previous comment, "he should bloody well know better."

"_Well, come on," Toni said subtly reminding him that he couldn't change her strange habits._

"_You got me one of those?" Obie sighed giving in._

"_There's only one left," Toni said abrasively, "I need it."_

"Needs it more than you," Phil practically snarled shocking the other Avengers. What had Obadiah Stane to actually make Phil of all people angry at him? "She's been practically starved and worked to death for three months."

_Toni polished off the last of the burger as she walked into the room filled with reporters instantly catching their attention meaning Obie's, "Hey, look who's here, yeah!" was completely unneeded. Once Toni was officially out of the immediate vicinity Piper sighed relieved and smiled gently obviously relieved that she was the same old Toni she had always been._

"Well, you changed but at least it was in a good way," Clint said noting that Piper's smile was probably for that very reason.

"_Mr Potts," was suddenly heard and Phil was shown standing next to Piper._

"You were there," Steve said shocked.

"My official job for a while was being Toni's handler to try and draw her into SHIELD," Phil informed the group, "this was before we knew about the Iron Man suit and then Fury got involved personally. Before we knew the new her we were nervous that with that much genius and a traumatic experience behind her she might end up on the wrong side."

"Fair assumption," Toni said quickly dispelling any arguments that might have broken out between the soon-to-be-former SHIELD agent members of the team and the Avengers who were only affiliated with SHIELD through the Avengers and other extenuating circumstances.

"_Yes," Piper said politely._

"And this is so obviously the first time you two met," Toni laughed. Piper had grown to dislike Phil because he drew Toni into dangerous situations whenever he turned up and Toni had to keep reminding him that it was just Phil's job and he was only following orders from Fury. Plus he often put himself in a lot of danger as well as the stabbing by Loki proved.

"_Can I speak to you for a moment?" Phil inquired._

"_I'm not part of the press conference but it's about to begin right now," Piper responded mistaking the smartly dressed Phil as a member of the press._

"You do look like a member of the Earth media Friend Coulson," Thor exclaimed, "I can see why Mr Potts mistook you for one."

Toni was quick to notice that the moniker of Friend was missing from in front of her ex-boyfriend's title whereas when they were together Thor had gone around calling him Friend Piper. Was her break-up with Piper affecting things already? Or had Thor always called him that when she wasn't around and if so why were the Avengers so hostile towards Piper when she had never seen him react negatively to them before this movie viewing session? It was more likely to be the second one actually for the others didn't react to Thor's 'change' of title for Piper.

"_I'm not a reporter," Phil informed him gaining Piper's full attention and his interest; "I'm Agent Phil Coulson, with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."_

"_That's quite a mouthful," Piper quipped taking Phil's card._

"I cannot believe it took you as long as you did just to look at the first letters of your title and realised it spelt out SHIELD," Toni laughed. Considering her father had been a founding member it was absolutely ridiculous but of course SHIELD agents mostly didn't know what common sense was so maybe it did make a twisted kind of sense. But dwelling on that would probably drive Toni insane trying to figure out how anybody could be so idiotic.

"_I know," Phil sighed, "We're working on it!"_

Toni sniggered again and received a dark look from Phil who the moment they had come up with had wondered why he hadn't spotted it before but that was probably because it hadn't been his primary concern as it was him who originally spotted the acronym.

"_You know," Piper said tentatively, "we've been approached already by the DOD, the FBI, the CIA…"_

"Everyone?!" Bruce exclaimed, "Nobody even knew about the Iron Man suit yet. Jeez!"

"They still ask me every so often trying to draw me away from SHIELD but even now I'm cutting ties with SHIELD I'm not exactly going to use one of them as a new 'sponsor,' they just want to use my tech to start a war which makes them just as bad as SHIELD," Toni informed them.

"_We're a more separate division with a more specific focus," Phil explained, "We need to debrief Miss Stark about the circumstances of her escape."_

"I have a feeling that had that meeting not been arranged on the day it was you would have lied through your teeth about everything," Phil said with a small smile.

"Of course," Toni said matter-of-factly.

"_I'll put something in the book, shall I?" Piper said accommodatingly._

"_Thank you," Phil said._

The present day Phil slipped into contemplation between the differences of the Piper today and the one who had been created as Toni stayed Iron Man despite his protests against him. This Piper would never have used Toni's tech to hack into SHIELD and change a file so that it slandered Toni as he wouldn't have felt that was morally right and he certainly would have been more accommodating of the Avengers rather than treating them with scorn and constantly warning them away from Toni saying they should exclude her from missions that her presence was vital for just because there was the smallest possibility that she could come out of it injured. Phil missed that Piper but if the Piper Potts of today was the price the world had to pay to get the Toni Stark/Iron Man of today then Phil knew it was absolutely worth it.

Toni was doing her best not to dwell on the pleasant interaction between Phil and Piper and instead was working out a way that she could reach Phil's cellist girlfriend (and future fiancé if she had anything to say about it. Nothing holding him back now that he was leaving SHIELD) Jenna in Portland and tell her Coulson was alive whilst revealing that his new job was working with the Avengers and that she would love to pay Jenna double her current wage to play at Stark Industries galas just so she could live at the Tower with Coulson.

_Obie stepped up to the podium that had been prepared at the front of the room as Toni decided to be eccentric again and instead took a seat in front of the podium pulling another cheeseburger from her pocket._

"Blatantly lying to your father figure," Clint laughed, "tut tut Toni!"

"_Hey, would it be all right if everyone sat down?" Toni asked confusing everyone but they moved to do as she had asked, "Why don't you just sit down? That way you can see me, and I can… A little less formal and…" here she took a bite of her cheeseburger. Even Obie joined her on the floor his smile now very fixed._

"Most bizarre press conference ever," Natasha stated.

"It was even weirder being there," Phil informed her, "and I certainly wasn't expecting what Toni pulled out of the hat next although I did admire her for making such a bold statement in front of so many people instead of just sending out a memo."

"_What's up with the love-in?" Rhodey said as he arrived and sat down next to Piper._

"_Don't look at me," Piper replied defensively, "I don't know what she's up to."_

"_Good to see you," Toni told Obie who echoed her words._

"No," Bruce said, "I agree with you. This press conference is definitely the weirdest. I've seen some weird ones in my time but this definitely wins."

"_I never got to say goodbye to Dad," Toni started directing this statement to Obie._

The Avengers especially Steve became very wide eyed as Toni voluntarily made a statement about her father. It didn't even appear to be negative mind you it was Toni. She could put a negative spin on anything.

"_I never got to say goodbye to my father," Toni said turning back to the reporters who were furiously making notes, "there's questions I would have asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts," Piper watched on nervously knowing Toni didn't like talking about Howard, "Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels."_

"Ouch," Clint muttered as Steve flinched. Maybe he didn't want to know what had happened to Howard after he'd gone into the ice. The snippets he'd gotten so far were not of a person that he would have wanted to know back in the 40s.

_Rhodey was shown back on his feet chuckling lightly at Toni's comment as the woman herself took on a more serious tone, "I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them."_

"Which was not your fault!" Bruce exclaimed quickly always eager to defend his friend seeing as even these memories couldn't be easy for her to watch as they kept referencing her experiences earlier on in the movie. 

_Obie's expression had darkened significantly suspecting that this train of thought was going in a direction that he didn't wish it to. "And I saw," Toni continued, "that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability."_

The team stiffened remembering Toni's snarled comments on zero accountability when they had been watching the pilot who fired the missile on New York. How many of Toni's comments would suddenly make a lot more sense after watching the movie reserved for her?

"_Miss Stark," came a chorus of voices and Toni decided on one she obviously knew, "hey Ben!"_

"Yes, I slept with him before you ask," Toni said sarcastically seriously wishing that she had gotten a drink before they had gotten to this movie. She was definitely getting several during the next break they took.

"_What happened over there?" Ben asked simply._

"_I had my eyes opened," Toni said pushing herself up to her feet and making her way behind the podium that had been set up for her to use, "I came to realise that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up."_

"You actually did it at a press conference," Clint and Bruce exclaimed in unison.

"_And that is why effective immediately," Toni said speaking quickly so nobody could stop her, "I am shutting down," here Obie sprung to his feet attempting to pull Toni away from the podium as the reporters sprung to their feet cameras and Dictaphones held as close to Toni as they could get them, "the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International," she continued despite Obie practically wrestling her away as Piper's jaw dropped, "until such a time as I can decide what the future of the company will be."_

"You really are a piece of work Toni," Phil laughed looking at the chaos that Toni had managed to cause with one simple statement.

"_I think we're going to sell a lot of newspapers," Obie said attempting to recover the situation but Toni was still talking as she was shoved to the side, "what direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country, as well." That was all she managed to get out before she finally was dragged away from the podium under Rhodey's disapproving glare._

"He was not happy that I cut off his primary source of weapons," Toni laughed, "could have been more subtle about his distaste for the situation though!"

"_What we should take away from this is that Toni's back!" Obie said as Toni walked head held high through the crowd of clamouring reporters. "And she's healthier than ever! We're going to have a little internal discussion and we'll get back to you with the follow-up."_

"I really don't like him," Steve admitted. He would be very glad when the movie about Toni's life was over and they moved onto the movie about one of the other Avengers even if it was about him. At least there weren't going to be as many secrets displayed on the screen in a movie about him because he was more open about his experiences. The others thoughts were following a similar line although many of them were hoping there wasn't a movie about them anyway.

**A/n: Poor naïve Avengers believing there's only one Toni movie. Look out for ReadPaxJoy's prompted oneshot for this verse titled 'Another of Asgard.' Looking forward to seeing what reviewer number 350 wants me to write for them :)**


	34. Disapproval

Chapter 34 – Disapproval

**A/n: And my 350****th**** reviewer is LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books :) So pick a storyline for your one-shot :) I will be doing something slightly different for the next prize so stay tuned :D**

**youwannabekate: I was wondering where you had got to Kate :) No, Howard is definitely not being dealt with until the big scene in Iron Man 2 about him just because by that point nobody will be able to stop themselves from asking anymore. I'm glad you liked the treatment of Piper because I agree; they had to be good for each other at some point. I'm hoping that it will at least reference the others because it's after New York.**

**ReadPaxJoy: I always thought it wouldn't just be Bruce who had to get a handle of his temper just in case because Thor's power is probably influenced by emotions too. Hopefully AoA will be up today :) **

**Neit Kitten: Piper and Toni broke up back in Chapter 18 – The Lies Are Ending :) If you need an explanation just re-read that chapter**

**whitetigerwolf: It's a shame you weren't the 350****th**** reviewer but who knows you might win the next competition which will be slightly different.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked it so much :)  
**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Congrats! This was review 350 :) Looking forward to hearing what you come up with. Bad Obie and I love Phil :D**

**Dragones: I'm glad you like the detailing; have some more :D **

**ReenReen: I've already decided that this isn't a Stoni story sorry :( Hope you keep reading anyway though **

**Tanin: There are going to be several different reactions and Toni's going to get a bit huffy about the teasing :) Hope you enjoy the scene **

**Booklover2526: Naïveté is just going to get them in trouble :D **

**paisley15: Hahaha, it's okay :) You've reviewed now :D And I'm glad you liked the additions and studies**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad! And we'll have to agree to disagree on that point because he was smiling before he said it. **

**Post U Later: No, because with this story Iron Man 3 would no longer be canon and as such wouldn't work within this story. I'm not doing the Hulk movie for a reason so…**

_Obadiah pulled up in front of the Stark Industries factory on his Segway. Also there was Happy who stood by Toni's car smoking with a bored expression on his face._

"Happy never did like Obie all that much," Toni muttered. She had a feeling that there wouldn't be much relief in this section of the story in actual fact because of things that Obie and Rhodey had said to her about her decision to follow through with shutting down the weapons department. It had been risky move and she had known that; she did the math but she wanted to do something to save the world instead of destroying it by giving Stark Industries weapons idea after weapons idea from the ones she had in storage. Well, stored in her brain anyway.

"_Where is she?" Obie boomed his tone dripping with disapproval already._

"_She's inside," Happy said in a clipped tone as he reached over to take the Segway. Obie sighed and used his security pass to let himself into the building where he found Toni staring up at the massive arc reactor that powered the factory._

"I know you said that it was big back in the cave but I didn't realise…" Bruce said shocked, "I mean… to downsize that amount of technology into something so small. That's beyond genius Toni because the only example you had was something that would never work in a million lifetimes as something smaller and you made it happen."

Toni's thoughts immediately went to Vanko who had also managed to produce an arc reactor. Mind you; his didn't have to be sterile and air-tight enough to run his heart. Just his suit. Which meant Toni's was probably a greater marvel of engineering than the other even if not by much. Especially given that she had to create a new element to get it running purely because it was actually within her body whereas Vanko and Obie if they had continued using palladium would never have suffered any side effects from it.

_Obie took a puff of his cigar and didn't bother to remove it from his mouth before he spoke, "well, that… That went well."_

"_Did I just paint a target on the back of my head?" Toni quipped unable to meet Obie's eyes and instead took to running her hand across the barrier between the arc reactor and her. It was clear she didn't want to have this conversation._

"You didn't want him to be disappointed in you," Natasha realised. She couldn't help but feel a little sad about this realisation though because Obie clearly didn't like Toni that much from the looks they had seen him give her so far even when she was accommodating his wishes. And the coldness in his looks spoke of someone who didn't know how to approve of anyone anyway unless they thought and acted exactly like him. Which was worrying because by all accounts he and Howard Stark had gotten along exceedingly well; it didn't bode well for Toni's childhood being a good one.

"_Your head?" Obie snorted, "What about my head?"_

"I do not like this man Friend Toni," Thor stated, "for he only seems to care for himself when others are important."

"_What do you think the over-under on the stock drop is going to be tomorrow?" Obie continued clearly looking to get Toni to change her mind._

"_Optimistically," Toni said slowly, "forty points."_

"That's a pretty big drop," Bruce said wincing even though he knew that Stark Industries had recovered from the hit.

"It was a risk that needed to be taken because there was no way I was staying in weapons manufacturing after what I saw happen in Afghanistan," Toni said coolly, "besides the stocks nowadays exceed what we had back then because ordinary people are more likely to trust their money to a company that is saving the world from pollution than one that is without a doubt contributing to it."

"_At minimum," Obie emphasised angrily._

"_Yep," Toni said softly clearly ignoring the fact that Obie wasn't at all pleased with her._

"I did the right thing," Toni muttered softly.

"_Toni," Obie said settling into trying to talk her out of this 'crazy notion,' "we're a weapons manufacturer."_

"_Obie," Toni interrupted quickly, "I just don't want a body count to be our only legacy."_

"Amen," Clint and Natasha muttered knowing what that was like. When they had joined the Avengers it had been the first time that they had been asked to do something that didn't end up with them killing in cold blood. Sure, some of the people they had been sent to kill were truly awful and the world was better off without them on the planet. But in some of their combat situations they knew that some of the people on the opposite side had been coerced (read forced) into fighting instead of the people the assassins really needed to kill. And it would forever weigh on their consciences which despite what many people thought were still fully functional. They just couldn't afford to listen to them too often. Maybe now they were leaving SHIELD they could truly begin to atone for the red in their ledgers.

"_That's what we do," Obie insisted, "We're iron mongers. We make weapons."_

"_It's my name on the side of the building," Toni pointed out dismissing any further argument that Obie was sure to come up with._

"You have a point," Steve admitted, "It's your company. He was only running it until you came of age and then he gave over all his rights to you."

"That was the problem wasn't it," Bruce realised, "he resented the fact that you came back from your self-imposed exile and took over the company when he thought that you would permanently give him the company. I mean you could have taken over at 17 when your parents died but you decided not to so he thought it was permanent. Then he had trouble letting go of the power that it gave him so he attempted to influence all of your actions."

"Hit the nail on the head there Bruce," Toni informed him her voice oddly tense. This made Bruce wonder if he had managed to hit on something that would cause some sort of larger conflict later on. He hoped not.

"_And what we do keeps the world from falling into chaos," Obie attempted capitalising on the fact that Toni was trying to protect people but Toni wasn't that easily swayed, "not based on what I saw."_

"Never back down from something you feel passionately about," Phil said approvingly. There had been times when he compromised about similar situations and in the end he always regretted it. If you really needed to do something and it wouldn't harm anyone you should go for it. And in this case it would save innocent lives.

"_We're not doing a good enough job," Toni said making good use of the fact that Obie had stopped interrupting, "we can do better. We're gonna do something else."_

"_Like what?" Obie exclaimed frustrated unintentionally paraphrasing Toni's words from before Afghanistan, "You want us to make baby bottles?"_

"A little too close to your words to be a coincidence," Clint observed, "He was the one that you got the phrase from even if you adapted it a little for your own tastes."

"_I think we should take another look into arc reactor technology," Toni deadpanned. _

"And here goes Toni's clean energy crusade," Natasha quipped not knowing that actually aside from talking about the arc reactor within Toni's chest there wouldn't be many other mentions of the 'clean energy crusade,' within this particular film. There was far too much plotting from Obie from this point onwards for Toni to even get started on creating any of the new arc reactors other than the updated one for herself. Especially since she was also creating the Iron Man suit and destroying all of her illegally sold weapons on the side which she considered more important at that point in time than making sure that her stocks wouldn't be destroyed because she had enough money to build the company up again if it hit rock bottom but money couldn't save the lives of those that stray weapons she had made might kill.

"_Come on," Obie scoffed waving his arm at the massive reactor behind them, "the arc reactor, that's a publicity stunt! Toni, come on. We built that thing to shut the hippies up!"_

"No," Toni said with a smirk, "we built it because I wanted to see if I could make something other than weapons and I could. And I don't think there was really a 'we' involved seeing as it was just me that built it; Obadiah was never really a scientist never mind on that scale."

"_It works," Toni said matter-of-factly._

"_Yeah," Obie said callously, "as a science project. The arc was never cost effective. We knew that before we built it."_

"Yet another thing that is amazing about the fact that you made it out of scraps in a cave," Phil pointed out joining in on Bruce's crusade to get Toni to see that she was worth something. He had noticed it way back when he had first met Toni but it was even more evident to him now that the woman hid behind a layer of masks that hid everything that was good about herself because whatever Howard Stark had done to her had battered her self-worth until she truly believed that she wasn't worth anything other than making things that would kill other people. He had no doubt that it was Howard's fault. Toni's reaction whenever someone mentioned his name outside of this viewing was proof enough as were the snippets that they had gotten during it. The problem was that to get to Toni's insecurities you had to break through her masks and saying that there were a lot of them was the severest understatement of the century. Phil had once believed it would be impossible to bring all of them down; impossible to heal the broken woman that Toni actually was behind her iron façade. But these movies had proven that it was possible because only a short while ago Toni had run from the room crying and her immediate avoidance of Clint suggested that she had let her masks down around him and now couldn't be near him in fear of him rejecting her. Phil needed to talk to Clint about that as soon as they took another break. Getting him in on the crusade when he had seen the real Toni might just be the push that they needed to get Toni to live up to her potential. The fact that some of the things she was doing anyway weren't living up to her true potential were shocking and quite frankly frightening but it didn't really matter because those things were for the benefit of the team.

"_Arc reactor technology, that's a dead end isn't it?" Obie said moving to stand behind Toni._

"He's lousy at pretending he doesn't know something," Natasha scoffed. It just added to her dislike of the man and made her think he should be quite thankful that he was dead or she might have increased his suffering a thousand fold. Maybe he could get Thor to include Obadiah Stane in his request to Hel if he actually went through with using it.

"_Maybe," Toni said softly not turning around._

"_Huh, am I right?" Obie said becoming more and more transparent causing Toni to turn to face him just so she could give him an incredulous look, "We haven't had a breakthrough in that in what? Thirty years."_

"I thought you said that you produced the arc reactor yourself," Bruce said confused.

"I did," Toni said, "I just didn't tell him that the original plans he and my father drew up for it would never have worked and that I may have made several fairly drastic alterations to get the thing to actually work at all."

"_That's what they say," Toni said quickly her eyes narrowing as she inspected Obie's face before sighing, "Could you have a lousier poker face? Just tell me, who told you?"_

"His poker face really is abysmal," Steve commented upon scrutinising Obadiah. He really didn't like the man with how he appeared to be goading Toni and he knew he was guilty of the same thing at times but he did it to attempt to keep Toni out of danger and he had the sickening feeling that Toni's so called friend was planning on doing the opposite.

"_Never mind who told me," Obie said dismissively, "Show me!"_

"He's seriously asking you to show him it considering the position it's in," Bruce said incredulously as Steve's super strength began tearing up his armchair as he clenched his fists into the material in a fit of sheer anger. There were many things you did not ask a lady to do and that was one of the most heinous.

"_It's Rhodey or Piper," Toni said stalling._

"_I want to see it," Obie reiterated._

"_Okay," Toni said before confidently stating, "Rhodey."_

"How did you work out which of your friends told him the secret Friend Toni?" Thor asked curiously.

"Piper wouldn't have asked Obie to hide that it was him which was obviously what Obie was doing but Rhodey is more afraid of my temper and so just in case I got angry about it he decided to ask Obie not to reveal it was him," Toni informed him, "I just made a judgement based on their personalities."

_Toni neatly unfastened her sling and let it fall to the floor so she had the use of both of arms and neatly looked around to check if anyone was looking before carefully lowering the neckline of the dress enough that it was excessively revealing but the top of the arc reactor could be seen before letting go of the dress._

"Steve!" Toni shouted, "Stop ripping up my $900 armchair! I will make you get a job so you can pay for it. Don't think I won't." Steve's hands immediately flew up off of the chair as if he had been shocked. It wasn't that he objected to doing some work it was that he was sitting on an armchair that cost more than most of the possessions he had back in Brooklyn in the 40s put together and he still wasn't used to such luxurious items just sitting around for anyone to sit in.

On the bright side despite his embarrassment it did make the team laugh including Toni and Steve didn't really mind that much as long as he was no longer destroying the expensive chair.

"_Okay," Obie sighed._

"_Okay?" Toni said sarcastically as Obie chuckled shooting a glance at the big arc reactor._

"One of the few times I ever managed to shock him," Toni commented.

"_It works," Toni told him firmly._

_Obie took in a deep breath and threw his arm around Toni's shoulders before starting in on his next ploy, "Listen to me, Toni. We're a team. Do you understand? There's nothing we can't do if we stick together, like your father and I." The minute her father was mentioned Toni looked anywhere but at Obie and rolled her eyes._

Natasha's eyes narrowed as she watched this scene disturbed that the minute Obie had seen Toni's arc reactor he had changed his tune and was suddenly all for cooperating with Toni on her latest 'whim.' Sure it was an engineering miracle but he was a little too curious for Natasha's tastes. Something was off and maybe she would finally be able to get the real story about Stane's death other than the one SHIELD had circulated about him being in a plane crash. Well, she had always known that was a false report but now she was beginning to suspect that some of the theories she had come up with about how he had really died were way off the mark. She didn't like it when her analysis of situations was off and it was slightly off this time and it was annoying her. She had to figure out what Stane's real motives were before they were shown on the screen or she might lose all faith in her abilities as a crack profiler.

"_I'm sorry I didn't give you a heads-up, okay?" Toni said bluntly clearly annoyed now Howard had been brought into the conversation, "But if I had…"_

"He would have stopped you," Phil said finishing her sentence.

"_Toni," Obie interrupted, "Toni, no more of this 'ready, fire, aim,' business. You understand me?"_

"_That was dad's line," Toni said bitterly._

"What?!" Steve exclaimed.

"His philosophy was that you got the weapon ready, you fired it and it didn't really matter where it landed you could look afterwards," Toni reiterated, "we are talking about the man who helped kill thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki Steve."

"_You gotta let me handle this," Obie insisted, "We're gonna have to play a whole different kind of ball now. We're going to have to take a lot of heat. I want you to promise that you're going to lay low."_

"Probably not such a good idea," Bruce realised, "people will start making assumptions about what happened when Toni was in captivity."

"It's a good thing that it didn't take long before she stopped listening to Stane then isn't it?" Phil laughed. He was the only one who knew what had really happened at Stark Industries night in the room other than Toni because he had been there. Of course that didn't mean he knew everything because he hadn't been present when Piper and Toni had collaborated and brought Stane down for good. He was particularly interested in seeing what had actually happened for the bits of the fight that he wasn't present for.

**A/n: Yes, it's short again but I've been busy writing the oneshot which will probably be up tomorrow rather than today due to how late/early in the morning it is right now. Hope you enjoy it anyway :) **


	35. Trouble With The Arc Reactor

Chapter 35 – Trouble With The Arc Reactor

**A/N - Looking forward to hearing from LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books so I can start work on another one-shot. Hopefully, I'll get the first one up today. Hopefully! Might still be tomorrow.**

**youwannabekate: Yes, he does. He's excellent comic relief when I need some although I will try and distribute it evenly so poor Steve isn't the butt of all of the jokes. And I'm glad you agree with where I'm placing the talk about Howard.**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :) **

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Yes you are :) It should be able to link into this verse in at least one way but it can be an AU version. But the basics Tony being a girl and them having watched the movies if you set it after that must still be canon. Yeah, a lot of the arc reactor scenes get a little pervy when Tony becomes a girl.**

**Tanin: I'm not just making you wait; you should be glad I update every day :D I'm not the biggest Rhodey fan which probably comes through in my writing. Enjoy!**

**Post U Later: Yes, he is. It's very fortunate that he's dead or he'd be dead again a million times over.**

**Read Pax Joy: You're welcome! And yeah me too I would be so scared of breaking anything at all! But Toni/y would probably just immediately buy a new one anyway :D Yeah Obie is such a hateable character.**

**ReenReen: There will be no pairings in this particular story. There will be two parallel sequels that cover the same timeline but with slightly different pairings they being one Bruce/Toni and one Clint/Toni and I'm glad you'll keep on reading anyway. It still wouldn't really work because the Avengers are living with Toni in the tower which is her new mostly fulltime residence. But thanks for the suggestion.**

**Booklover2526: Yeah, hating Obie seems to be the general mood right now :D **

**paisley15: It merits capital letters :) And I'm glad I didn't have to change anything because I'm trying to stay as true to character as I can whilst still incorporating changes. I'm also setting up a major plot point for the sequel so let's see who spots it first :D Yeah, Obie is a total perv and it will sound so much worse with a girl**

"_Stark Industries," a presenter boomed on a show proclaiming itself as Mad Money._

"God, I hate that show," Clint sighed knowing that Toni and her company were about to get slammed, "they talk a lot of trash in a ridiculous way and people believe it and buy and sell stocks based on it. Even I can tell that they get almost everything wrong."

"Well," Toni admitted, "their predictions were well founded I guess because I didn't exactly announce a new direction for the company when I shut down the weapons division so they didn't know what I was going to do with my company. I have a feeling the people who stayed on the stocks whilst they were crashing did it because they knew I was a genius who was bound to come up with something revolutionary that wasn't to do with the military."

"_I've got one recommendation!" the presenter continued, "Ready? Ready?" here he hit a button causing a voiceover to ring out saying, "Sell, sell, sell!" and he continued by shouting, "Abandon ship!"_

"And here we go," Natasha sighed also knowing of the show and finding it one of the most annoying on the planet. He always picked a random company to pick on every month for some fabricated reason. Stark Industries had never been a target because it was a stable company run by a genius billionaire but the show was always biased against female run companies so the minute Toni shut down part of what Stark Industries did he latched onto the chance to ruin her because it was something he enjoyed doing. He had nearly wrecked one of her covers once by destroying the stocks of the company that she supposedly worked for but luckily by that point she had all the Intel that she needed on the job and was able to carry out her mission successfully. It had been a close call and Natasha had sworn to herself then that if she ever came across the man in person she would proceed to beat him up. He wouldn't be able to file charges against her because Natasha Romanoff had been a ghost since the day she had entered the Red Room.

"_Does the Hindenburg ring any bells?" he said imperiously trying to further discourage any shareholders._

Steve's expression darkened the moment he heard this and he sent a withering glare at the man on the screen and the others were sure that had the man actually been there he would have been cowering in a corner to get away from it. "One of the few references I understand," Steve spat out, "and you used it for that. You did not just compare something that resulted in the deaths of 36 people to someone choosing to do something that would save people's lives."

Bruce was a little too cautious of angering a furious Steve any further to point out that it had just been a metaphor if a highly exaggerated one. He did still have some self-preservation.

_Piper sighed from where he sat watching it as the presenter ran around triggering more sound effects. "Let me show you the new Stark Industries business plan!" Here he picked up a baseball bat and used it to smash a Mad Money mug that sat on the table top._

"Anyone with half a brain should have been able to tell that it wasn't that bad," Natasha scoffed.

"Those who stayed on were highly rewarded seeing as their stocks in the company have shot up for keeping the faith in Stark Industries through our adaptation period," Toni informed the group, "most of the people who gave up their stocks because of reports like this are seriously regretting that right now because of the technological innovations that have come out of my R&D department."

"And as usual," Phil added, "you are holding about two years in reserve so you will release the things you've already come up with over time as the technology develops to make it possible to mass produce whilst you set to work on even more complicated products."

"We're currently beating Apple in sales of music players, tablets and accessories with the stuff that I invented a couple of years ago," Toni said with a shrug, "I don't see any need to spend my time working out the details of mass producing them when my R&D department will work it out eventually and I can create something that's even better than what they're attempting to mass produce. Gives me more time to work on arc reactors and Iron Man suits as well as all the stuff I make for you guys. And speaking of work for you guys," she said tapping a few buttons on her StarkPad, "the Widows Bite I developed with a wider range has been completely synthesised and should be ready for testing in my new training area (which I also just finished programming the holograms for) when we next take a break."

"You were working all this time," Steve said incredulously, "you weren't even looking at your StarkPad."

"So…" Toni said, "I've memorised where all the keys are and all the functions I installed on it. All I have to do is look down at it every so often to work out any glitches and that barely takes me two seconds. Not my fault that you are all so absorbed in watching this representation of my life that you didn't spot me doing it."

_Piper winced a little as the presenter continued, "Look, that's a weapons company that doesn't make weapons," he was pointing at the shattered ruins on the floor, "that's what you get when you put a woman in charge of a company worth millions of dollars people."_

"He did not just say that," Natasha said with a snarl, "I knew he was a chauvinist but saying it openly on television instead of just targeting companies run by woman is a new low."

"_Piper," Toni's voice said coming through his StarkPad, "how big are your hands?"_

_Piper clearly hadn't heard Toni properly as he muted Mad Money and asked, "What?"_

"_How big are your hands?" Toni reiterated._

"This is going to be awkward," Bruce stated realising that it was going to be something to do with the arc reactor. And considering where it was located; yeah this was going to be awkward. Natasha echoed his statement clearly having come to the same conclusion about what Toni needed Piper to do for her.

"_I don't understand why…" Piper said confused but Toni interrupted her with a quickly uttered, "Get down here, I need you."_

_Piper whilst clearly still confused put aside his laptop and began to walk down to the lab. He was clearly still confused as he entered the code to open the lab doors to reveal Toni lying down on a recliner wearing a tight fitting black tank top with a hole cut in the front for the arc reactor to fit through which through some miracle didn't show anything inappropriate. In her hand was another miniaturised arc reactor._

"Yeah, it took be about three shirts before I figured out exactly where I needed to put it because obviously I wasn't cutting holes in my t-shirts whilst they were still on my body because I'm not an idiot," Toni said upon being given questioning looks about why on earth she had made a hole in her shirt.

"_Hey," she said as Piper advanced cautiously into the room as if unsure whether Toni really wanted her to get any closer to her, "let's see them. Show me your hands."_

"Oh," Clint said coming to a sudden realisation, "I know what you're doing now. That is really awkward."

"_Let's see them," Toni said again as Piper drew in closer and puzzled showed Toni his hands and his boss sighed in relief, "They are small enough for what I need you to do."_

"You struck lucky there," Natasha told Toni who simply nodded in response. It would eventually have culminated in a very bad situation if Piper had been unable to help her because at the time she really hadn't had anyone else that she could trust. Rhodey was still a maybe at that stage and his hands were bigger than Piper's anyway and Obie was a maybe tending to a no and had always been that way just because he was so closely involved with her father and his attempt to steal her work.

"_I just," Toni said haltingly, "need your help for a sec."_

"_Oh, my god," Piper exclaimed looking at the blue light shining in Toni's torso, "is that the thing that's keeping you alive?"_

"_It was," Toni said looking down at the new arc reactor, "it is now an antique," Piper stepped back confused, "this is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future."_

"Toni you have a very odd definition of antique because I'm pretty sure that arc reactor isn't even a quarter of a year old in that scene," Phil said incredulously.

"Well, it was an antique in comparison," Toni defended, "it was also made up of parts in a cave and once I was in my lab the next version was always going to be better than the one I made in a crisis situation. I had time to refine it."

"_I'm swapping it out for an upgraded unit," Toni continued, "and I just ran into a little speed bump."_

"That does not sound good Friend Toni," Thor said concerned even though the events of this film had already happened. But just like Steve earlier Thor had become drawn into the film and couldn't stop himself from reacting to it like he was viewing live events. Maybe it was because the two of them had the least experience with television not having had access to it until they joined the Avengers and moved into Avengers Tower.

"_Speed bump," Piper said concerned, "what does that mean?"_

"_It's nothing," Toni said quickly, "It's just a little snag. There's an exposed wire under this device." Here she reached up and turned the arc reactor pulling it out of her chest._

"How long would it take…?" Steve began uncertainly.

"For it to kill me?" Toni finished, "it would depend on how long ago it was that it was last removed for any length of time. I can survive with a piece of it buried in my aorta as long as it's there long enough to gain scar tissue but if I keep it out for over 20 minutes or take it out too frequently over a certain period of time then yes, I will die."

"You say you could survive with a piece of it in your aorta with such confidence," Natasha said cautiously, "you know because there's already a piece there. Don't you?"

The others were praying for a negative answer knowing then that something had happened to Toni that had brought her close to the brink of death. But they didn't get their wish because Toni's answer was a clipped, "yes! Complications arose."

The team didn't bother asking her to elaborate because she was never going to in a million years. She was fully determined to keep things private until Amora saw fit to show them to the team.

"_And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short," Toni explained, "It's fine!" It probably didn't help Piper's nerves that she accompanied this by snapping the wire of the arc reactor away and handing it over to Piper._

"Not the best way to go about asking for his help perhaps Toni," Phil sighed knowing that the Piper back then would have had real trouble seeing Toni pull something that was keeping her alive out of her chest. Nowadays he wouldn't even be in the room with her when she was doing it even if it was necessary. Of course Phil didn't have any proof of this but from what he'd heard about what Piper had become and from his own changing experiences with the man he could make an educated guess.

"_What do you want me to do?" Piper stuttered as he took it._

"_Put that on the table over there," Toni told him nonchalantly, "that is irrelevant."_

"_Oh my god!" Piper exclaimed._

Steve could barely look at the screen even though he was sure this scene could become important later on in understanding things about Toni. But it just looked offensive and wrong to him and whilst he knew Piper was only going to help Toni it didn't sit right with his values system. It actually triggered some serious thinking about what he would do if he had to help out with Toni's arc reactor in some way because what if being awkward around the device led to her death. He didn't think he could deal with the guilt if that happened plus the fact that losing Toni after he had just begun to get to know her through these films didn't even bear dwelling on.

"_I just want you to reach in," Toni said uncomfortably, "and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out. I know it's awkward and I'm sorry."_

"At least you acknowledged it," Steve said still torn between whether to look at the screen or not. Eventually he decided that if Toni could suffer through some of the scenes earlier in the movie then he should be able to deal with this and not let his 40s values get in the way. He just had to keep reminding himself that it was Toni who must be going through the most so far as she had been in all of the films. And a lot of the things that had happened to her in them were severely traumatising so much so that Steve was astonished that her masks were so good that she showed no outward sign of any of it. Maybe that was a bad thing though. It was something to talk to the others about anyway.

_Piper peered nervously into the housing for the reactor asking worriedly, "Is it safe?"_

"_Yeah, it should be fine," Toni said calmly, "It's like 'Operation'. You just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes 'beep.'"_

"A comparison to a board game," Bruce said shocked, "from you!"

"_What do you mean 'Operation'?" Piper said confused._

"Yeah," Toni said taking in the shocked looks of the team, "personally I find it much more shocking that it was me that had heard of the board game and Piper that hadn't. How did he ever miss out on knowing about 'Operation'?"

"_It's just a game, never mind," Toni sighed, "just gently lift the wire. Okay? Great."_

"_Okay," Piper said going to put his hand into the chamber but then flinching back as though he had been burned, "you know. I don't think that I'm qualified to do this."_

"Nobody was qualified," Toni said amused, "there are no other cases of people doing that and certainly none of people making arc reactors in caves to save their own lives. Besides it wasn't like there was any time to find anyone else because I'd just disconnected my old arc reactor."

"And you were already beginning to die again," Natasha said solemnly, "the wire was stuck so you couldn't put the old one back in temporarily and you couldn't put the new one in until all the wires of the old one were gone."

"_No, you're fine," Toni said reassuringly but also as quickly as she could, "you're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met. You're gonna do great." _

Toni silently wished that she could still use all of those qualities to describe her friend but they technically weren't true anymore. The most qualified person for situations like that was actually Bruce and she couldn't trust Piper after he'd attempted to pull one over on her by altering Natasha's report. He knew full well that she would be devastated if she had thought Natasha had betrayed her a second time by writing down lies and he also knew that she would never have been able to work with her friend again. This was of course his aim but it didn't make it right. The only thing that kept their relationship being as short as the rest of Toni's was the fact that she knew from the beginning that he had done it.

"_Is it too much of a problem to ask?" Toni said reverting to her usual snarky tone, "Cause I'm…"_

"Dying," Clint finished bitterly not liking the way Piper was stalling something that could result in Toni's death if left too long.

"_Okay," Piper said finally, "okay!"_

"_I really need your help here," Toni informed him, "okay!"_

_This time Piper actually put his hand down into the housing for the arc reactor wincing and exclaiming loudly, "oh, there's pus!"_

"That looks really wrong," Clint said voicing what Steve had been thinking all along, "I mean I get that there was no other option but that doesn't stop it looking wildly inappropriate."

"_It's not pus," Toni deadpanned looking anywhere but at Piper's hand, "It's an inorganic plasmic discharge. It's from the device not my body."_

"Well that's a relief," Natasha said wrinkling up her nose, "because I have a feeling I'll end up being the one who has to replace it in future if anything goes wrong because I have the smallest hands."

"It doesn't even happen anymore," Toni told her, "I built in a device when I built the new design of arc reactor that cancelled out the discharge and installed it into the one in my chest and into all my spares. I will tell each of you where one of them is and JARVIS will make sure that you don't tell the others because I don't want them all being destroyed if a villain somehow gets in here."

"Fair enough," Bruce acknowledged seeing why she couldn't trust everyone with the location of them all in this situation in case the location was forced out of them or they were observed going to get it.

"_It smells!" Piper whined although not without good reason._

"Really glad it doesn't happen anymore," Natasha said with a hint of disgust in her voice. She was glad it was Piper dealing with this and not her because it sounded like it was a nightmare.

"_Yeah, it does," Toni confirmed, "the copper wire. The cooper wire, you got it?"_

"_Okay," Piper said weakly, "I got it. I got it." He then gently began to pull it out of Toni's body as the woman in question asked for a confirmation, "okay, you got it?"_

_As it came up it obviously collided with one of the sides because Toni jolted in the chair and let out a yell as a buzzing sound could be heard. "Now, don't let it touch the sides when you're coming out," Toni said rather crossly._

"That looks most painful Friend Toni," Thor said sympathetically, "it reminds me of when…" But the others tactfully intervened to cut Thor off because his sagas could last for days and they actually wanted to get through watching these movies as quickly as they could. Although they had enjoyed the time they had managed to elicit from Thor that he actually had dressed up as woman to retrieve Mjolnir from giants that one time with Loki's help. Toni hadn't stop teasing him good naturedly about his long hair for days.

"_I'm sorry," Piper apologised frantically, "I'm sorry!"_

"_That's what I was trying to tell you before," Toni managed to say weakly. The electrocution had obviously affected her more than she was letting on. The cooper wire was now visible as Piper pulled it straight out of Toni's chest. "Now," Toni warned, "make sure that when you pull it out you don't pull out… There's a magnet at the end of it." But Piper couldn't stop in time and the magnet came out with the wire as the heart monitor began to beep rapidly._

"Oh god!" Steve muttered worriedly.

"_That was it. You just pulled it out," Toni said slightly annoyed._

"_Oh, god!" Piper said hearing the heart monitor beginning to transmit beeps so close together that they almost sounded like they were a single long beep. _

"This is going to be too close," Natasha predicted.

"_Okay, I was not expecting…" Toni said weakly._

"_Okay, what do I do?" Piper interrupted moving it back towards the arc reactor housing but Toni quickly told him, "don't put it back in, don't put it back in!"_

"_What's wrong?" Piper panicked seeing Toni take in a ragged deep breath._

"_Oh nothing," Toni said sarcastically, "I'm just going into cardiac arrest cause you yanked it out like a trout…"_

"And there's the Toni we all know," Clint said, "sarcasm in the face of danger really is your style isn't it."

"_What!?" Piper shouted, "I thought you said this was safe."_

"Technically she said she thought it was safe," Natasha muttered, "which was just another way to say that she was betting with her life again."

Toni didn't dignify this with a retort because she knew that Natasha knew full well that even if the magnet had not been pulled out she was dying anyway with the insufficient connection between the arc reactor and her body so Piper had to remove the wire no matter what.

"_We gotta hurry," Toni said quickly putting the second arc reactor in Piper's hands, "take this. Take this!"_

_Piper kept muttering 'okay,' to himself as Toni told him, "you gotta switch it out real quick."_

"_Toni?" Piper said attempting to be comforting but not moving to put the arc reactor in as Toni quickly said, "what?" Piper continued speaking without the arc reactor moving any nearer to Toni's chest, "It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay."_

"_Is it?" Toni said clearly trying to usher Piper into action._

"It's not going to be okay unless he tries to put the damn thing in," Bruce exclaimed his eyes flashing green.

"Suddenly I am really glad that it will be me who deals with any arc reactor mishaps from now own," Natasha said glaring at the Piper onscreen. She got that he was trying to make Toni feel better but until he got the device in the sentiment was just slowly getting Toni killed. There was no place for sentiment in that situation.

"_I'm gonna make this okay," Piper continued as Toni urgently muttered, "let's hope!"_

_Finally Piper began lowering the cable attached to the arc reactor into its housing as Toni weakly explained what he had to do, "Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make sure you…" Before she could finish this sentence there was a click as the arc reactor connected and Toni let out a brief yelp of pain as Piper lowered the actual device towards Toni's chest._

"Finally!" the entire team exclaimed glad that Piper had gotten over his distraction with comforting Toni and actually done something about the fact that he was holding the arc reactor and Toni's life in his hand.

"_Was that so hard? That was fun, right?" Toni teased trying to get the teasing tone back as Piper attempted to fasten in the arc reactor eventually she took over with a quick, "Here. I got it. I got it. Here. Nice."_

"I have never been so glad for something that wasn't in a direct captivity or combat situation to be over," Clint sighed relieved.

_Piper stared at his hands which were covered in transparent slime and sighed, "Are you okay?"_

"_Yeah," Toni told him, "I feel great. And sorry for the awkwardness again. You okay?"_

_Piper was half-sighing and half-laughing when he next spoke while Toni laughed without reservation at his expression, "Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again."_

_Toni began her next sentence with a slight stutter clearly struggling to get it out, "I don't have anyone but you."_

This caused the happy mood that had been spreading throughout the room to plummet again until Thor cheerfully said, "well shield brothers and sisters we should simply give thanks that this is no longer the case for our friend Lady Toni."

"_Anyway…" Toni said weakly reaching underneath her shirt and removing the electrodes that had been monitoring her heartbeat for the length of the procedure and pulling on a leather jacket._

"_What do you want me to do with this?" Piper asked gently picking up the arc reactor from the cave._

"_That?" Toni said incredulously, "Destroy it. Incinerate it."_

"Why?" Steve asked.

"I didn't want anyone else getting their hands on it because it was too powerful even for a hunk of junk made in a cave," Toni informed him, "I didn't need it. Mind you what it ended up doing made me smile!"

"_You don't want to keep it?" Piper said uncharacteristically surprised by something Toni did. _

"_Piper, I've been called many things," Toni sighed, "'Nostalgic,' is not one of them."_

"It's hard to be nostalgic if you have nothing to be nostalgic over other than bots that still work perfectly well," Toni muttered to herself managing to keep it mostly to herself although Bruce heard some of what she said and didn't like what he heard.

"_Will that be all, Miss Stark?" Piper said taking another brief look at the old arc reactor in his hands._

"_That will be all Mr Potts," came the standard reply in their exchange. As soon as the conversation was over with Toni turned away from Piper and began talking to one of her AI's as Piper exited the room, "hey, Butterfingers, come here. What's all this stuff doing on top of my desk? That's my phone, that's a picture of me and my dad. Right there. In the garbage. All that stuff." _

Steve knew that he needed to have a conversation with Toni about Howard. The problem was there was never a good time with Toni to bring up her father even when it was only innocently. Steve had to come up with some way of getting her to talk about it or they would never fully be able to put their differences aside.

**A/n: I feel really bad because AoA is still not up but it's proving tricky to write. I'm sorry ReadPaxJoy; I will desperately try to get it up tomorrow!**


	36. Talking To Rhodey

Chapter 36 – Talking To Rhodey

**A/N – I was almost overwhelmed when I saw the sheer amount of reviews I got for the last chapter and I nearly started crying. I just… I love you all so much. So, I came up with two new ways to reward you with oneshots. Up until I hit 400 reviews everyone can leave an idea for a oneshot they want to see written for this verse in their review and once we hit 400 I will choose the one I like the best and write it. There's also a poll on my profile for the one that will be written when we hit 450 so you should all vote on that.**

**Tranquillity's Chaos: Updating! /scaredface**

**paisley15: I know it's like you acknowledged that is keeping him alive but you're not putting it in as fast as you can! Aww… you can help me somehow :D  
**

**ReadPaxJoy: Aww, that's sweet. Still going to get it up asap because it would annoy me. Yeah, sentiment has to be very carefully used and Piper/Pepper didn't do very well with that concept. I might if I was any good at writing Thor but I'm not. I'm glad you liked the extra info in IF :) **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX and Harm Marie: I'm glad you liked it. **

**FudoTwin17: I'm very glad that you do.**

**SparkleNicole: I'm glad you liked it and I hope you like this one too.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: She should definitely get Tasha to do it :D Bet she wishes she had Tasha back then :D I'm glad you really liked it and yes sentiment has its good and bad sides. **

**ReenReen: Well maybe I'll write it in future but right now it's obsolete because it's not out yet. I'm glad you liked it.**

**ReaderoftheBooks: I'm really glad that you're liking this story so far. And it's okay; I understand people don't always have time to review. **

**nessa11997: You're welcome**

**Booklover2526: I'm really glad you liked that scene because I always found it really stupid because NO everything is NOT going to be alright at this particular moment because the arc reactor isn't in because you're not putting it in.**

**twilightjazz: I only tend to post a short chapter if I'm working on a TAAC oneshot or I literally do not have the time to type anymore but I try my best to keep them as long as I can and I'm very glad that you want more of this story after you read.**

**Post U Later: Yeah, Piper is ridiculously slow in that scene.**

_A change of scene to some sort of military base with a fighter jet rolling along the runway as Rhodey's voice could be heard giving a speech, "The future of air combat," here the scene switched to inside the hanger where Rhodey was giving a speech to some airmen, "Is it manned or unmanned?"_

"If he says unmanned I will punch him the next time I see him," Clint informed Toni and was puzzled when instead of a glare she instead gave him a shrug. The truth was that she had still never forgiven Rhodey for the theft of what had eventually become the War Machine armour but hadn't been able to bring herself to punish him for it properly. Maybe Clint punching him would have made her feel better. Not that he would because Rhodey believed that manned aircraft were better anyway. Maybe she could come up with an excuse to get him to punch Rhodey anyway.

"_I'll tell you," Rhodey informed them, "in my experience, no unmanned aerial vehicle will ever trump a pilot's instinct, his insight, that ability to look into a situation beyond the obvious and discern its outcome, or a pilot's judgement."_

"Thank god," Clint said, "because I was serious about punching him if he'd said unmanned. Everything he said there is true."

"_Colonel?" Toni said appearing from behind one of the planes, "why not a pilot without the plane?"_

"Which is basically what your suit is," Natasha realised, "you told him!?"

"What I want to know is why he looks so guilty now that you've appeared," Steve asked having recognised the look of guilt on Rhodey's face because he'd been seeing it on his own in the mirror a lot lately whenever he thought about the irrational things he'd said to Toni on the helicarrier.

"Because he basically parroted a speech I made to him back at MIT and he didn't think I was there to see that he turned it into a keynote speech for new recruits that were fortunate enough to end up under his tutelage," Toni informed her, "I didn't really mind him using it but he didn't tell me he was going to. It's why I ended up making fun of him shortly after this."

"_Look who fell out the sky," Rhodey quipped, "Miss Toni Stark."_

"_Hello ma'am," one of the pilots shaking her hand as Toni began to tease Rhodey, "Speaking of manned and unmanned, you gotta get him to tell you about the time he guessed wrong at spring break. Just remember that, spring break, 1987."_

"I can forgive the transgression as long as it was that long ago," Clint said although he was still frowning obviously wondering how anyone could ever think that unmanned crafts would be better. Even Toni knew that manned crafts were better and as far as he knew she could only fly her suit and the quinjet. Mind you these films had already proven that he didn't know as much about the real Toni as he thought he had.

"_That lovely lady you woke up with," Toni kept teasing and Rhodey immediately realised what Toni was about to say and quickly intervened with a, "don't do that!"_

"Like that's going to stop Toni if she's cross at you," Natasha scoffed, "honestly! I know you much better than all of people who claim to be your best friends."

"Best friends, only friends," Toni said with a shrug, "same thing!"

"_What was his name?" Toni continued undeterred causing the airmen to laugh raucously as Rhodey repeated, "Don't do that."_

"_Was it Ivan?" Toni still wasn't at all bothered by Rhodey's protests, "Don't do that. They'll believe it. Don't do that."_

"Of course they would believe it," Toni said, "that was the entire point. It was true anyway. That did happen even if he fervently tries to claim that it didn't. Maybe I should be offended because he denies sleeping with me just as much as he does waking up next to a guy."

"Wait," Steve said confused, "you slept with Rhodey too."

"You know just for the sake of all of our sanities you should probably assume that anyone I knew before Afghanistan is someone I've slept with," Toni told him matter-of-factly, "Rhodey was one of the few who actually wanted a relationship with me afterwards but as you can clearly see I'm kryptonite for relationships so I turned him down. Settled for letting our friendship go back to the way it was."

"How could you have known that it wouldn't work?" Bruce said in a carefully blank tone, "you might have been able to get something stable in your life which I know you want even if you won't admit to it. That's why you let Piper into a relationship with you in the first place even though you were worried about how the public would view it."

"Maybe it would have worked," Toni admitted, "but back then the age gap between us was much more obvious besides nowadays I'm pretty sure those feelings are long gone so they would have faded even more quickly if he'd actually been subjected to a pre-Afghanistan me in a relationship."

"_Okay," Toni said now clearly annoyed by Rhodey's repetition of the phrase which he used another time not realising that she had stopped teasing him._

"Bit slow on the uptake there," Clint commented.

"_Pleasure meeting you," Toni told the airmen sincerely as Rhodey asked them to, "give us a couple of minutes, you guys."_

_As the pilots wandered off to different parts of the base so they could avoid being within earshot of the conversation Rhodey laughingly told Toni, "I'm surprised!"_

"Seriously," Natasha sighed, "why on Earth do these people claim to know you? Maybe you're not the most predictable person on the planet but that action was fairly predictable but if you needed to see Rhodey then you needed to see Rhodey." Natasha couldn't help but worry about Toni especially since out of all the Avengers including Bruce she probably knew Toni the best as a consequence of knowing her the longest and having been her friend for almost the same amount of time. Sure, they still had overwhelming trust issues because Natasha had gone along with Fury's plan once they had found out about the palladium poisoning even though Toni had confided in her that her freedom was the most important thing she had left in her dying moments. Natasha regretted that she took the choice away from Toni as to whether she should live or die even though she never wanted Toni to die. She had figured out a while back that there was no way someone as intelligent as Toni hadn't figured out that she could synthesise a new element which would save her from her fate a lot earlier than SHIELD had seeing as the people there had absolutely no common sense. Something that Toni had in abundance even if she didn't always use it. But she felt bad about wanting to break through Toni's masks when she still had ever so many of her own that she didn't want the other woman breaking through. The ones that hid her experiences before she joined SHIELD and some from afterwards. She knew Toni suspected some things just as Natasha suspected that some things were hiding behind Toni's masks but that didn't mean either of them wanted to give the other confirmation of what they suspected. Their self-preservation was too strong for that. The problem was the others were going to want to get through Toni's shields and Natasha knew that it was likely to drive Toni even further away from them and she couldn't lose the only female friend she had.

"_Why?" Toni asked._

"_I swear, I didn't expect to see you walking around so soon," Rhodey said with a smile._

"I'm almost convinced you two are actually strangers at this stage," Bruce said incredulously. Mind you maybe Toni's bad habits with hospitals had only started after she had been hooked up the arc reactor and become in constant pain every hour of every day. Bruce winced at that thought; he didn't like the thought of his friend suffering just for managing to survive a situation that would have killed practically anybody else. They would either have resisted for a shorter amount of time than Toni and then given in or given in straight away and as soon as they were done they would have been killed. Even if they had been strong enough to refuse for that length of time they wouldn't have been intelligent enough to trick their way into an escape. Well, nobody else would have been able to build the arc reactor anyway so would have died in the week after the electromagnet stopped working correctly. In a way maybe Toni had been the best person in the world to be stuck in that situation. Even in his head Bruce knew that sounded cruel but he couldn't help thinking that it was true because anyone else would never have gotten out of the situation alive. Then Iron Man would never have existed and Manhattan and the Avengers would have been completely wiped out by a nuclear bomb. Well, actually several of them would have died when the helicarrier crashed before they reached that point.

"_I'm doing a little better than walking," Toni scoffed offended that he thought she was an invalid because of what had happened to her in Afghanistan._

"Even I know you shouldn't treat Toni like an invalid," Steve said incredulously, "and this guy claimed he would always know you better than I would when we first met in return for the comments I made. I was wrong about Toni but he was wrong about that!"

"_Really?" Rhodey questioned and Toni answered with a quick, "yeah! Rhodey, I'm working on something big. I came to talk to you. I want you to be a part of it."_

"He's going to assume you're going back on your word at the press conference," Clint predicted, "although to be fair to him you didn't specify what you wanted him to be a part of. Still like Natasha has been saying. He should know better than to assume you would go back on something you announced so publically and with such conviction."

_Rhodey smiled more genuinely this time saying, "you're about to make a whole lot of people around here real happy, cause that little stunt at the press conference, that was a doozy."_

"What is a 'doozy,' Friend Toni?" Thor inquired.

"It's not even worth the explanation Thor," Toni told him, "It's not complimentary. Let's just leave it at that instead of making the situation more complicated than is absolutely necessary."

"_This is not for the military," Toni said considering each word for a moment before she spoke, "I'm not… It's different!"_

_Rhodey's face instantly fixed itself into a half-puzzled half-frowning expression as he spoke again in a less positive tone, "What? You're a humanitarian now or something?"_

"_I need you to listen to me," Toni insisted but Rhodey was no longer listening to Toni, "no! What you need is time to get your mind right."_

"And here we go…" Toni sighed.

"How dare the Friend of Toni say such a thing to the Lady? You should demand retribution from your so called friend for such a grievous insult to you."

"Everyone thought I had PTSD," Toni snorted, "not like he was the only one. Over it already."

No, you're not was Natasha's first thought on the matter. She knew that Toni really did have PTSD when she came back. Well, she suspected but it was one of the things that she had seen through Toni's multitude of masks and so was probably an accurate conclusion. Plus, her distrust of Rhodey was probably influenced by this moment as well. Because one of her other memories associated with both Rhodey and the Iron Man suit was of him telling her that she didn't have any clue what she was doing because she had been in a traumatic situation. Weren't army types briefed for these situations and told the first thing to do was to let the person live as normal a life as they could? идиот!

_Toni's forced a painful smile as Rhodey told her, "I'm serious!"_

"_Okay," Toni said bitterly before Rhodey began to walk away telling her, "It's nice seeing you, Toni!"  
_

"Could he be a lousier liar?" Phil muttered. He had quite liked Rhodey the last time he had met him but he wasn't sure that he liked the man anymore. The last thing you said to someone with suspected PTSD was that they had a problem before they were willing to talk about it. Maybe that was why to this day Toni never admitted to anybody that she had in the past suffered from PTSD. But then again, was it in the past? Or was she still suffering from it? Phil couldn't really tell.

"_Thanks," Toni muttered sadly as the scene cut to an exterior shot of the Malibu mansion before changing to Toni's hands sliding across a holographic keyboard to switch it on revealing it was all in code._

"I've been meaning to ask for a while," Bruce remembered, "but all of my keyboards are the only ones in the Tower with English characters. Why?"

"The code that I use on the keyboards is the code that Dummy, You, Butterfingers, Peggy etc… speak in. So I put it on my keyboards to make it easier to update their programmes. Occasionally I just use it in its spoken form when I want to communicate with them on a more one-to-one level," Toni explained.

"Peggy?!" Steve said quietly.

"Well, yeah," Toni replied gently, "she is my godmother after all and the only real role model I had in my younger life. The Peggy that lives in this house is the coffee maker. Almost every appliance in this house is at least partially sentient."

"No higher honour than being allowed to make Toni's coffee," Phil quipped, "sometimes I think she's surgically attached to her coffee mugs."

"Coffee is the most amazing invention of the planet," Toni said darkly, "do not hate on my coffee because I am not above withholding it when I'm being cranky."

"I would shut up," Clint whispered to Phil, "if Toni's being cranky you need either coffee or alcohol and she locks up all her alcohol when she's not drinking it. You do not want her to follow through on that threat and she really will."

"I sense the voice of experience," Phil said raising his eyebrow.

"She makes really good coffee in Peggy okay!" Clint exclaimed and it came out much louder than he intended it to meaning that almost everyone in the room burst out laughing at this statement except for Steve who was still getting used to the fact that there was something in the house named after his ex-flame.

"_JARVIS, you up?" Toni asked quietly._

"_For you, ma'am, always," JARVIS responded._

"Your AI seems much politer back then than he does now," Clint said frowning confused. Wasn't JARVIS the same in every single one of Toni's residences or was there a separate JARVIS for every building?

"Added some new sarcasm upgrades since then," Toni said nonchalantly with a shrug.

"_I'd like to open a new project file," Toni told him pulling up images of the Mark I Iron Man suit and picking up some sort of pen, "index as Mark II." Here she used the pen like device to pull the schematics for the Iron Man Mark II suit towards the holographic board as JARVIS asked, "Shall I store this on the Stark Industries Central Database?"_

"There's no way Toni's going to do that with the designs for her suit," Phil said, "there's never been any trace that I know of on the Stark Industries Central Database. Not that anyone's ever gotten very far into the coding because Toni came up with it. The only things that are more secure are her personal files and the coding to get into JARVIS. And I only know this through guesswork," he concluded before Toni got angry at him.

"Please," Toni said dangerously, "I already destroyed most of what the two SHIELD idiots who attempted to break into JARVIS had to their name. Still haven't confronted Fury about it because I can't think of a punishment severe enough that it fits the crime."

Natasha blanched. JARVIS was for all intents and purposes a person and Fury had tried to get at him which was probably something akin to rape. And she had no doubts that Fury was going to regret the utter failure of an attempt for all time. She was just grateful this was the first she had heard about it because no doubt Toni would be talking to Phil about his loyalties and probably shout at him for about half an hour about his transgression before forgiving him. For some reason she really had a soft spot for Phil.

"_Actually," Toni said walking over to the hologram of the Mark I suit, "I don't know who to trust right now. Till further notice, why don't we just keep everything on my private server?"_

"_Working on a secret project are we, ma'am?" JARVIS said knowingly as the components of the hologram slid into place displaying the complete Iron Man suit that Toni had used to break out of her captive situation. She instantly flipped open the helmet and began discarding parts of it into the holographic trash bin telling JARVIS, "I don't want this winding up in the wrong hands. Maybe in mine, it can actually do some good." With this last phrase she sent the hologram spinning._

"And you did!" Steve said jumping on the give Toni more self-worth bandwagon, "we never could have saved the world without what you did. And I've seen the newspaper articles about how you stabilised the East-West relations."

"Thank you," Toni said quietly.

**A/n – I know it's short but so is that scene in the movie. Coming up next is the testing of the Iron Man suit :D **


	37. An Early Test Run

Chapter 37 – An Early Test Run

**A/n: This chapter has been eagerly awaited so I hope you enjoy it and if you haven't already remember to vote for a oneshot you'd like to see after 450 reviews.**

**Ashtree1165: I'm glad you were looking forward to this scene and I hope it lives up to your expectations. **

**youwannabekate: They will eventually see Toni without the reactor in but they won't know about it beforehand. Yeah, no me gusta, they need to be careful but most of them don't have experience with dealing with it. Natasha and Phil will talk them out of the direct approach. JARVIS is a person so it's a big no no!**

**paisley15: Yeah, it's one of the most fun scenes of any of the movies. Toni's AI's are people and they shouldn't be treated otherwise so I thought the analogy was a good one. I guess we're thinking alike again.**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :)**

**Post U Later: Yeah, I'm not the biggest Rhodey fan as is probably evident. Peggy is a character I've always liked so I had to put her in somehow.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you enjoyed it and hope this next scene lives up to your expectations.**

**Dragones: I never know how much of the film the chapter will cover before I type it because it's mostly based on time and where's best to cut it to get it out to you guys. **

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Yeah, I'm often sighing the word Rhodey when I watch these movies. Yeah, a lot of the scenes in this film feature a self-destructive Toni.**

**Booklover2526: I hope you'll enjoy it.**

**ReenReen: No, they haven't and it will probably be a shock to them if I write it how I think I will. Toni doesn't often completely lose her temper but there she did.**

**ReadPaxJoy: Yes, we're getting into the funny bits before we revert back to angst. Yes shame on Rhodey! Because poor Toni. Aww… thank you that was a really sweet thing to say :D **

**Harm Marie: I'm glad.**

**Lupanari: I'm glad that you like the change of Tony into Toni at least somewhat seeing as you don't like genderbenders. Believe it or not I'm a massive Pepperony fan and I adore Pepper but Piper wrote himself the way he turned out in this story. The primary reason for twisting this came down to the fact that I'm a girl and I don't think I write male lead characters very well. That was it. I'm glad that you like the formatting of the movie sections.**

_Back in Afghanistan the remaining members of the Ten Rings were digging into the sand as a sandstorm raged around them. Scattered across the landscape were scraps of metal that poked out at odd angles as larger pieces were carted around by other members of the terrorist organisation._

"They're going to try and rebuild the Mark I suit," Steve exclaimed suddenly realising what was going on.

"You shouldn't worry too much," Bruce told Steve reassuringly, "Toni built an arc reactor that was needed to power the suit and that went back to Malibu with her. They couldn't even make the missile that they were tricked into thinking Toni was making when she was actually making the Mark I which looks completely different from a missile. They're clearly not technologically apt and so won't be able to build anything that would power the suit. Especially since Toni wrote down the plans for the suit and not the arc reactor so they may be able to assemble the suit correctly (if they even manage to find all the pieces in a desert) but they can't actually get it to work."

That would have been all well and good if they hadn't been working for Obie was Toni's first thought on the matter. It was true that other attempts made by people more technologically apt had failed miserably. See Hammer's attempts without Ivan Vanko there to actually build the things because while Toni hated to admit it he had at least some technological knowledge even if he was a million light years behind Toni in every field and more so in some than others seeing as all he could do was engineer and he didn't even have a Masters degree in it having stopped at a Bachelor's. The military had definitely been desperate once Toni had withdrawn her tech from the armed forces and had just seized upon Toni's main 'competitor.' Maybe they'd been trying to convince her that Hammer could fill her job just as well as she once had and that would convince her to give them access to her projects again. Look how that had turned out; Hammer was in jail, Toni had a medal and she still hadn't reverted to making weapons.

_One of the terrorists uncovered the face mask of the suit and held it up as the sand within it trickled slowly through the eyeholes and he shouted out in a foreign language. Nearer to one of the trucks that they were using for transportation Raza turned around revealing a large burn on one side of his head._

"Wow," Natasha said appreciatively, "very nice shot. Of course it would have been better if it had killed him but still. That looks excruciatingly painful," her grin whilst talking about this was slightly disturbing but what was more disturbing to the Avengers was that they were growing used to things like this happening.

_Raza shouted over to the man who had found the face mask and he began to hurry over to the leader of the group and handed him the mask which he inspected with a stone cold expression only magnified by the fact that you couldn't see his eyes behind his improvised sunglasses._

"I know it's unlikely he'll build an Iron Man suit but he still gives me the creeps," Clint admitted, "I was hoping he had died when Toni broke out because I have a feeling all he's going to cause in future is trouble."

Toni herself was wondering why she had never seen Raza and his men again in all her trips to Asia which had included several to Afghanistan and even a couple to Kunar Province exclusively. She knew they had been in league with Obie and that was why they had wanted to kill her originally but she had seriously pissed them off when she managed to escape so why hadn't they come after her again? Were they so scared of the Iron Man suit that they had retreated to their caves and never come out? Yet, it didn't seem logical. The only logical conclusion was that Raza was dead or all of his men were dead. Toni wasn't sure which one she wanted more although both would be extra nice. But Toni didn't usually get rewarded with things that were extra nice.

_Back in the lab Toni was working on the boot for the Mark II of the Iron Man suit as Dummy assisted her holding a magnifying glass up for her to look through so she got a better look at the details. "Next," she instructed sharply, "up!"_

"Short commands work better with the robots when I'm not communicating with them in code so I tend to use them when I can unless I have to actually explain something to them," Toni said cutting off Steve's rant about the fact that she was always saying her AI's were people (which they were; sentient life forms with human level intelligence and reasoning skills are people no matter what they're made of) then she should treat them better.

"What I can't understand is why Dummy hasn't been programmed to understand lengthy commands or speak English," Phil said confused, "JARVIS does both of those things and you built them within a year of each other maybe slightly longer but not by much."

"Dummy was my very first AI so I was learning the ropes of something that nobody had ever done before," Toni informed him, "when I made JARVIS I had gained experience in making Dummy as well as You and Butterfingers. Then it felt wrong to go back and mess with the personality of a thinking being even if it gave Dummy an obsession with fire extinguishers."

"I am sure that Mr Dummy wields his chosen weapon with great skill Friend Stark," Thor boomed happily clearly glad to be talking about something positive again, "this fire extinguisher sounds like it is interesting to work with."

"Thank you," Toni said uncertainly not sure she wanted to know the reasons behind Thor's statement. But she had already sworn never to let him near an AI again after he had scorched Macy (her toaster) when making poptarts and nearly broken a section of You's mechanical arm.

"_Not in the boot, Dummy," Toni sighed in exasperation as Dummy tried to hold the glass in the wrong place and pointing out the right one, "Right here. You got me_."

"I keep meaning to ask," Steve said suddenly, "why are the names of all your robots so insulting?"

"Firstly," Toni said trying to hold back the anger she was feeling from her tone," don't call them robots. They're not just any kind of robot so you should call them AI's and I would appreciate it if you referred to them as such. Secondly; they're not insulting. Every single name that I give to an AI is based off something that I thought about them when they were first created. Somebody called Dummy 'dumb,' just as I was finishing him because they thought he would never work and then he did so my retort was if he's a 'dummy' then I'd like to see a smart robot hence the name. 'You,' kind of picked his own name because one of the delivery men who came to my house in Arizona where I lived until I turned twenty one could never remember my name and always called me 'You.' Well, 'You,' answered the door once and the delivery guy said the same thing and it stuck. Etcetera etcetera have we had our fill of questioning my motives about my naming habits of my robots now? Because I really don't want to get angry at you!"

"Yeah," Steve said weakly and Toni's expression turned back to a smile and she turned her attention back to the screen.

"_Stay put," Toni told the AI when he was in position, "nice!" After this Dummy moved the magnifying glass closer to Toni's face as her tone became exasperated again, "You're of no benefit at all. Move down to the toe. I've got this."_

"You really do mother those AI's," Natasha said with a slight smile. She knew Toni often believed that she was a bad at socialising because she had confided that fact in Natasha back when she had been 'safe' Natalie Rushman and not the agent of SHIELD who took away her freedom after a heartfelt confession about how that was one of the worst things someone could do to her. She knew that in all those public situations where Toni appeared to be in her element at least a dozen more masks appeared to hide all the cracks in her façade. After all most of her experiences with those events had been with people using her either for business or sex. Mind you Natasha hoped that the social event the pair had gone to had been at least semi-enjoyable for the other woman. It had certainly shocked some of the other members of the party but neither of them had given a damn.

_Dummy attempted to lower his mechanical arm straight down which meant that Toni had to briefly shift her arms with a quick quip of, "okay, I'm sorry, am I in your way?" that was obviously an answer to something Dummy had said in code._

"You banter with your AI's as well," Bruce said with a sigh, "I'm pretty sure you banter with everyone at this stage including every single one of your enemies and a lot of people who everybody else is scared of just because you can."

"Life is better with a little bit of banter," Toni said with a shrug.

_Once Toni had finished with the top of the boot she moved down to the toe herself and once again told Dummy, "up!" but when Dummy got in the way again Toni gave it up as a lost cause, "screw it. Don't even move."_

"That's probably the best way to go about it from the start on most occasions but I still hold out hope that one day he'll do another useful thing," Toni sighed. Dummy had been amazing in delivering her the old arc reactor realising that was what she needed but that had been one of his flashes of brilliance. The rest of his time was still inexplicably spent by using a fire extinguisher on innocent victims who weren't actually on fire. Namely her!

"_You are a tragedy," Toni deadpanned to Dummy as she finished up her work. _

"Friend Toni why are you saying that to Mr Dummy yet when someone else criticises him you are his fiercest defender," Thor inquired.

"It's because Dummy is my creation," Toni replied, "I can point out his faults because I don't really mean anything I'm saying. He was my first AI and yes he's not as good as the others but he's still an AI. When anyone else says things like that they genuinely mean them and Dummy knows the difference. Remember he does have a personality. People often think some of my older AI's don't simply because they don't speak English like JARVIS does but they're wrong. In a way they're personalities are more defined because they have their little quirks that I wasn't able to spot and iron out of the systems at the time. JARVIS only has all the sarcasm because I installed upgrades whereas my other AI's are sarcastic because they weren't programmed not to be in the original blueprints."

_Toni neatly opened up the back of the boot and the next scene was shown through a video camera of Toni wearing the boots along with some other equipment that was strapped across her chest and connected to the reactor so she could practice with the suit._

"I have a feeling there were a lot of mishaps when you started working with the suit," Natasha said smiling having a feeling that segments of this next section would be highly amusing. Mind you if Toni got seriously hurt during tests it would be as funny and it was always a possibility.

This possibility also seemed to have occurred to Steve and Bruce who both knew either by virtue of their complete ignorance of how the suit worked or through their fundamental knowledge of how complicated it was that it couldn't be easy to pilot and that anyone who would laugh at Toni's possible incidents wouldn't understand just how hard piloting the suit had to be. Toni herself was just resigned to watching the early tests which were the most embarrassing ones for her.

"_Okay," Toni said stepping back her footsteps echoing on the marble floor due to the metal boots she wore, "let's do this right."_

"Those aren't your repulsors," Bruce said noticing the more primitive flight controls that she held in her hands. Mind you primitive by Toni's standards; those were probably some of the most advanced technology in the world at the time other than anything else made by Toni later on. To be honest they probably still were.

"_Start mark, half a metre, and back and centre," Toni stated for posterity knowing that every little detail of her account would be important if anything went wrong. Then she turned to her AI who was looking at the ground, "Dummy, look alive! You're on standby for fire safety."_

"I'm guessing this is where the fire extinguisher obsession began," Clint said with a laugh. He received a glare from Toni but for once it didn't deter them because the thought of a robot – sorry, AI with an obsession for spraying foam and/or gas over everything was too funny not to laugh at.

"_You, roll it," Toni told the AI with the camera who had actually already started filming the scene prematurely, "Okay, activate hand controls," Here she placed her hands out in front of her an equal distance apart so that she should keep balance in the air. There was a distinct hum of the devices powering up as Toni said softly, "we're going to start out nice and easy. We're gonna see if ten percent thrust capacity achieves lift."_

"If it was anyone attempting to fly with that much power I'd say no way but it's you so…" Natasha said trailing off. She had the sickening thought that 10 percent thrust capacity would end up with Toni getting injured from the sheer amount of power Toni put into these things.

"_And three, two, one," Toni counted down before pushing down on the lever on the hand controls but it was too much power and Toni flew backwards colliding with the ceiling with an audible thump and collapsing to the ground as Dummy began spraying her with the fire extinguisher._

Thor and Clint were chuckling away at the situation but a quick glare from Natasha accompanied by a barked out statement of, "are you insane? I know it looks kind of funny but Toni isn't wearing any protection on her head which just collided with a stone surface at a hurtling pace. She could have been unlucky enough to need surgery after a hit like that!"

"I was fine by the way," Toni said as the team began to look her over fervently as if some sign of that collision might still show on Toni to this day. Okay, so maybe there was a slight scar on her back from where the sharp edge of that part of the ceiling had dug in but it hadn't even hurt at the time. She was fine!

_The next shot showed Toni typing furiously on one of her keyboards creating designs for what looked like a prototype of her repulsors. Her only pause was to take a sip of her coffee which had probably been made for her by Peggy. The next shot was of her back at her hologram board arranging pieces to form a model of the repulsor. _

"So you're going to build that to make flight easier?" Clint said confused, "I thought you said earlier that you had the repulsor technology in the Jericho so wouldn't it have occurred to you when you were first starting out that you should try them for manned flight."

"Variables needed more testing and I had another quicker option that should have worked," Toni told him, "I underestimated my own talent in how powerful I could make the things. Plus, I was aiming for a flight stabiliser and as I initially designed the repulsors to assist with weapons they didn't immediately spring to mind okay."

**A/n – Sorry, this is actually very little scene to commentrary ratio but the problem is I feel totally abysmal right now and if I stay up to write anymore I feel like I may faint and probably get in trouble for being up writing at 4:30am so I'm sorry but this one is short. Please don't kill me**


	38. A Missed Meeting

Chapter 38 – A Missed Meeting

**A/n: Thank you all for the well wishes those of you who gave them because I really was feeling pretty awful when I was writing the last chapter. Still not the greatest right now but I'm feeling slightly better. This chapter has my first furrow into Thor's mind. PLEASE COMMENT ON IT! I just still think I suck at writing him so /shrugs**

**ReadPaxJoy: Glad you still liked it. And I love Dummy; and the other AI's but especially Dummy and his fire extinguisher. Yeah, I've seen other stories treat it like it's nothing but funny and while I recognise that it looks funny a hit like that to just the right spot on your head could easily kill you so I decided to address that. 9 HOURS! I'm lucky if I get 2 cause I have chronic insomnia. That's partially why you guys get chapters every day.**

**HockeyGal09: I'm glad you're liking it and no I'm not purely because it wouldn't work with this timeline as it isn't canon in relation to this story.**

**paisley15: I'm glad you liked it and thank you. Thinking like me is cool :) Honestly! I'm only slightly crazy**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked it and here is some more for you**

**Booklover2526: More mishaps coming right up :D**

**nessa11997: You're welcome!**

**Post U Later: I'm glad you liked it as I always see Toni/y as being very protective of the AI's because come on they are basically her children.**

**Dragones: Yay, I'm not going to get killed. Have some more**

**Avengers-Are-My-World-23: A) most of the reasons will be explained later on in the story, b) one scene from TIH will be shown and c) mainly because I would find it hard to tie it in to the story.**

**ReenReen: I'm glad you appreciate my updating speed :D To be perfectly honest I have no idea considering the fact that I don't know how long any of them are going to be so it could be a while.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I'm pretty sure I am mostly nocturnal really :D Yeah, it is. Not sure about brain damage but it had to bloody hurt and I thought the scar was realistic too.**

**Blink-182-98: Hey! I'm so glad you like it and thank you very much for the compliment :D I love Deadpool too and I'd love to bring him in which means he'll probably make cameos in the sequels just because I can. He won't be in this story though **

_The plans for the repulsors were soon turned into a working model that Toni closed over her arm and began fine tuning as Piper could be seen beginning to come down the stairs to the lab._

"Okay," Natasha said, "I'm betting Piper's going to be confused because I have a feeling that the power in the repulsors is enough for them to be used as a weapon as well as a flight stabiliser even at this stage and you've only just quit making weapons."

"Well," Toni said with a shrug, "half the world still assumes that I'm going to eventually use the suit as a giant weapon anyway or that it already is just a weapon for the masses as you know very well Tasha."

"Yeah," Natasha acknowledged, "mind you I think most of them are too scared to really come after you for it anymore. You're too good at humiliating them when they try."

"If they try and take my tech they deserve it," Toni muttered softly but darkly. Bruce was the only one who really heard all that she was saying and the tone kind of scared him. He was extremely glad that it had been Steve who had immediately gotten on Toni's bad side and had to work up to being her friend rather than him. He was quite content with never doing anything to anger his first true friend since the accident who hadn't left him either by choice or because they had been forced. And it wasn't like Toni hadn't been under significant pressure to abandon her protection of him so that the military could take him in for testing. Bruce would always treasure the memory of her punching the leader in the face for the mere suggestion that she would leave Bruce behind. It was one of the many aspects of Toni that people didn't expect; she could be extraordinarily loyal to people but only if you let her analyse you so she could see for herself that you were worth it. Most people Bruce knew would not meet Toni's standards of worth it for good reason. And looking at these movies and events that had happened whilst watching them Bruce knew that even people Toni was loyal to hardly ever awarded her the same courtesy putting their loyalty elsewhere. Rhodey's loyalty was to the military first and foremost which was understandable due to the job he held but going so far to tell Toni that something was wrong with her just because she did something he didn't particularly like was a huge display of distrust. He highly doubted that Rhodey and Toni had the same level of trust now that they did before Toni was capture in Afghanistan even though Toni was in her own words 'a better person now.'

_Toni spared Piper a glance as he entered the room balancing a cup of coffee on top of a brown package and then Toni returned to her work muttering, "up two. Alright, set that!"_

"That must take some getting used to when someone first starts working for you," Steve said matter-of-factly.

"Trust me it's a little strange to go looking for her at 5am and find that she's done seven more projects since you left her at 2am," Natasha informed the group.

"What were you doing going to see Toni at 5am?" Clint said confused.

"Couldn't sleep and I knew that Toni didn't (and still doesn't) sleep so I figured I would go and see if she had made any more progress on the designs she had been working on when I left. Saw she was finished with them and asked to see them and ended up seeing all the other ones on the completed list," Natasha explained, "We spent a lot of early mornings talking about things when neither of us could physically go to sleep."

"By talking you mean drinking and talking," Clint said accusingly receiving a synchronised, "so!?" from the women in the room which immediately shut him up.

"Everyone ends up drinking with Toni at some point Clint," Phil informed him.

"You too Agent Coulson," Bruce said shocked.

"She had good alcohol, I was off duty and she was willing to talk to me about Jenna," Phil explained his voice betraying a hint of sadness towards the end knowing Fury would have talked to his girlfriend and told her he was dead just to cut all ties despite the fact that he was still alive.

"Oh yeah," Toni said remembering something, "got in contact with Jen and told her you weren't dead. She's coming back from Portland to see you soon and seeing as you don't work for SHIELD anymore…"

Phil seemed to have been made speechless for the first time in his life opening and closing his mouth in a rather realistic goldfish impression as he tried to think about what to say. Clint however seemed to have something to say about this revelation, "you talk to Phil's girlfriend so often that you have a nickname for her?!"

"Well Phil introduced us once and she didn't know anyone else who knew Phil because he couldn't let her meet any of his colleagues obviously so we ended up talking for longer than Phil thought we would and then she gave me her number," Toni said with a shrug, "it's nice to talk to Jen when Tasha's not here and I actually need to talk to a women who'll understand some of the things I'm saying."

"True," Natasha said understanding the logic, "I usually just call you anyway. And listen to you typing as we talk."

"Well, I can't stop working for a phone call," Toni pointed out, "I basically have four jobs so I need to work on at least one of them at a time so I can get everything I need to do done before people start shouting at me because I'm behind my usual rate which is coincidentally slightly unreasonable because anybody else would take at least three days longer probably more than my usual rate and my rate in getting things to you is extended because I sometimes finish something and then get so caught up in working on the next things I'm needed for that I don't send it off straight after I've sent it. Well, SHIELD isn't getting anything from me anymore so that cuts it down to three jobs. Might get bored with less to do actually so maybe I should start working on some of the projects that I thought up when I was younger and see how I can tweak them with my new technology. Should probably upgrade the StarkPhone a couple more times too!" By the end of this speech Toni was speaking in a quiet mutter making updates on her StarkPad as the others turned back to watching the film. Toni had been there for all of this so there was no point in telling her to be pay attention besides she was beyond capable of multitasking and they didn't want another Toni lecture which would last for ages just because one of them was stupid enough to piss off an already on edge Toni Stark again.

"_I've been buzzing you," Piper said irritated, "did you hear the intercom?" _

"Probably," everyone but Toni said in unison.

"_Yeah, everything's…" Toni said focusing on working out any glitches with the arm, "what?"_

"_Obadiah's upstairs," Piper informed her._

Steve frowned, "I really hope he doesn't show up too often. At first I was offended that we hadn't been introduced but now I really don't want to be introduced to him. He just makes me feel uncomfortable for some reason."

"A very good one," Toni said but refused to elaborate on what exactly she meant by that so the others decided to leave it. They knew the drill. If it doesn't come up you can ask later.

"_Great, great, I'll be right up," Toni muttered using her other arm to raise the one encased in the repulsor housing and keeping it as level as she could. _

"_I thought you said you were done making weapons," Piper said disapprovingly obviously wondering why Toni was making him do a complete overhaul of the company if she was just planning on returning to her old ways. _

Bruce frowned because this was just another person who didn't believe that Toni would keep to her word to stop making the weapons she had made for so long. Didn't they realise that while yes a traumatising experience could give you serious issues it might also make you take another look at your life and realise that the things you were doing with it weren't what you truly wanted. Especially when the experience was one like Toni's where you were shown up close and personal that people who admired you for your work were terrorists and were using your work to kill people. People that you had built them to protect in the first place. He didn't believe for a second that Toni didn't have issues related to her kidnapping and torture no matter how big a front she presented but he knew that Toni would never have let it mess with her important decision because even against her own thoughts she was far too stubborn for that. Just like she was stubborn about anything else in her life including making friends just because they might see through just one of her masks and begin to decipher the whole picture. That was why Bruce had been so surprised that Toni had let them all – plus Erik, Jane and Darcy – move into the tower in the first place because the more people she surrounded herself with (whether she became friendly with them or not) the more people there were to put together the pieces of the puzzle which was Toni Stark. And that was the last thing that she wanted and it had already begun.

"_I am," Toni said defensively, "This is a flight stabiliser. It's completely harmless." She didn't back up this statement very well because the moment she pushed the button to activate the stabiliser it powered up and blasted her backwards from the sheer amount of power put in it. Piper clutched at his ears from the noise looking horrified._

Thor found this display most amusing but knew better than to say this in front of the Lady Natasha. Of course he understood that any of these incidents could have seriously hurt the Lady Toni and if that had happened he would have been resisting the urge to hurl Mjolnir through the screen instead of resisting the urge to laugh but he could see no evidence of grievous wounds on Lady Toni today it was hard for him not to find the situation terribly humorous. And the actions of Mr Potts are also highly amusing but his shield brothers were sure to assume that he was laughing distastefully at Lady Toni's suffering and his explanations took time that they did not have. So he refrained from his laughter and fought to keep a straight face.

"_I didn't expect that," Toni sighed as Piper shot a worried look at the place where she was lying on the floor. In the next shot the piano could be heard playing as Toni walked up the stairs from her lab arc reactor shining out through her purple tank top. "How'd it go?" she asked as it was revealed that it was Obie who was playing the piano._

Toni shuddered a little at the thought of Obie's fingers being the last to play one of her much beloved pianos. Mind you the new one that she had bought was exactly the same and if she hadn't crashed through that one in her suit she would have eventually trashed it to get rid of any trace of Obie that remained in her house. Maybe it was for the best that destroying it was an accident because she really did love her musical instruments and destroying it would not have been easy for her.

_Toni suddenly spotted the pizza box sitting on her coffee table, "It went that bad, huh?"_

"How is bringing you pizza bad?" Steve asked confused. He thought Toni liked pizza; she certainly ordered it in for the whole group often enough and she quite happily ate it. Of course he found the pizza weird because it tasted very different from how it was in the 40's but there was nothing really wrong with it so why was bringing pizza a bad thing?

"Obie… well let's just say pizza is comfort food," Toni said stiltedly, "he only brought it back when something went wrong."

"_Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean it went bad," Obie insisted still focused on his playing._

"_Sure doesn't," Toni said sarcastically before she opened the box and exclaimed, "oh boy!"  
_

"_It would have gone better if you were there," Obie told her as she picked up one of the slices of pizza choosing not to focus on him._

"I thought he told you to lay low," Clint said confused, "is he changing his mind and expecting you to instantly know that he's made a different decision?"

"No," Toni said shortly, "however he is assuming that I actually look at my schedule when I get caught up in a project which is a big mistake. Piper makes sure I actually stick to things I absolutely need to be present for and seeing as he knew I was keeping a low profile he didn't bother telling me about it. Besides Obie didn't really mind that I wasn't there. Not really!"

Yet another person who didn't know Toni very well was Natasha's first thought on the subject. Mind you it was probably a good thing in the end that Obie didn't know all that much about the real Toni because it meant that whatever happened that night at Stark Industries Toni's movements hadn't been totally predictable to Stane. Natasha was almost certain now that they were going to see that scene and find out what had really happened. They'd already seen the suit being rebuilt in Afghanistan and these movies seemed to be running at the standard length for a particularly action packed feature film which meant there was still a lot of this one left giving them plenty of time to get to that point in Toni's life. It also meant there probably wasn't enough time for her to show up and for the movie to cover all the events surrounding Toni dying slowly of palladium poisoning including the big battles against Ivan Vanko. Natasha knew there were two options as to what would happen about that data. Either Amora hadn't included it because she thought none of it was incriminating enough to turn them against Toni and they wouldn't see it _or _they were going to have a to watch a second feature length film of Toni suffering in complete agony and Natasha betraying her trust on one of the worst ways possible. Natasha had a sickening feeling it would be the latter. Poor Toni!

"_You told me to lay low," Toni pointed out as Obie came down from the piano. She was much more interested in eating her slice of pizza than hearing Obie complain something that they had already covered, "that's what I've been doing. I lay low, and you take care of all…"_

"_Hey, come on, in public, the press," Obie said sitting down opposite Toni, "this was a board of directors meeting."_

"And nobody told you about it," Bruce exclaimed.

"Piper probably assumed that Obie had told me about the meeting and that I'd just chosen not to go because I couldn't be bothered being responsible or something," Toni said knowing this was the most likely reason.

"What about Mr Stane?" Thor inquired, "did he assume that Mr Potts had told you?"

The silence that met this question was eerie and so the others quickly turned back to the television and watched the movie to get some noise in the room to get rid of it. They also avoided eye contact with Toni whose expression had darkened drastically.

"_This was a board of directors meeting?" Toni said surprised._

"_The board is claiming you have posttraumatic stress," Obie informed her solemnly, "They're filing an injunction."_

Bruce muttered a few choice words under his breath upon hearing this. Idiots! Everyone was just assuming that because Toni had finally realised that she didn't like what she was doing and wanted to end it that she had lost her mind. Rhodey, Obie, the board even Piper to some extent. Okay so she had PTSD but it wasn't interfering with her work. In any way and that would have been the first clue yet she still had her work ethic. This was Obie's fault for telling her to hide away because people thought that she wasn't fit and that's why she wasn't appearing. Everything bad in the company seemed to be Obie's fault at this point actually. Was that on purpose or was he just ignorant? But hadn't he been the CEO before Toni and so he should know what to do in business? Something was extremely fishy about Obadiah Stane but Bruce just couldn't put his finger on the exact problem.

"_A what?" Toni exclaimed angrily._

"_They want to lock you out," Obie told her._

"How do they have the authority to stop you going to work in your own company Friend Toni?" Thor asked.

"There's no point in explaining the whole business system right now Thor," Toni told him, "I'll send some files to Jane for you and she can show you how to access them. Would that be okay?"

"Of course Friend Toni," Thor said most pleased that he would get to spend more time with Lady Jane when she wasn't working on one of her science projects and he felt like a nuisance for staying around her.

"_Why," Toni said her words getting more and more heated as she continued speaking, "'cause the stocks dipped 40 points? We knew that was going to happen."_

_Piper looked over to Toni sadly and stared blankly at her before saying in a monotone, "Fifty-six and a half."_

"That's not going to help Piper," Phil sighed exasperatedly. They didn't need the specifics that Piper dealt in right now when Toni was trying to make her point against something that was preventing her from changing the world for the better. He knew why Obie had done it of course having gotten the full report from Toni (although he suspected it was in actual fact an abridged version) but it still frustrated him that Toni was getting blocked at every turn by a mixture of foul play and complete ignorance.

"_It doesn't matter," Toni said turning her anger on Piper for pointing out the discrepancy, "we own the controlling interest in the company."_

"_Toni," Obie attempted to reason, "the board has rights, too."_

"Not as many as I do," Toni said with a scowl, "kicked most of that board out anyway," the next part was said so quietly that not even Bruce could hear it, "most of them were in league with Obie anyway. No double dealing in my company. I am _not _my father."

"_They're making the cast that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest," Obie told her matter-of-factly._

"I'd like to see their faces now that the stocks are the highest they've been for Stark Industries ever as well as all of her sub-companies. I'm betting they withdrew their stocks when Toni had them removed," Natasha said amused.

"_I'm being responsible!" Toni stated angrily, "That's a new direction for me, for the company," when she saw Obie's unconvinced look she tried to explain it in terms he would get, "I mean, me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that…" Here Toni appeared to give it up as a lost cause and sprung to her feet with a muttered, "this is great," taking the pizza box with her._

"That's the best way to get revenge," Clint said sarcastically, "withhold pizza!"

"_Oh, come on, Toni, Toni," Obie said attempting to get Toni's attention back but she was already more than fed up with the conversation, "I'll be in the shop," she told him as she wandered away._

"_Hey, hey!" Obie tried again actually getting up and walking over to Toni putting his hand on her shoulder, "Hey, Toni. Listen! I'm trying to turn this thing around but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them."_

"He had better not be suggesting what I think he is," Steve said knowing that it was probably something to do with the arc reactor and getting the plans of it.

"_Let me have the engineers analyse that," Obie said pointing at the arc reactor in Toni's chest, "You know, draw up some specs."_

"Completely ignoring the fact that removing it for long enough would end in her death because Piper's incinerated the other one and it can't be removed for more than twenty minute," Bruce spat out his skin becoming alarmingly green tinged but Toni grabbed a hold of his arm silently telling him that she was still there and his skin reverted back to its original colour.

"_No," Toni exclaimed, "no, absolutely not!"_

"_It'll give me a bone to throw to the guys in New York," Obie said throwing in what had to be his most convincing voice._

"_This one stays with me," Toni told him firmly, "That's it, Obie! Forget it!"_

"_All right, well," Obie said petulantly taking the pizza from Toni, "this stays with me, then."_

"Seriously," Clint exclaimed, "what is this obsession with withholding pizza as if it's some kind of supreme punishment when you can order some in just as easily and have an entire one to yourself.

"_Go on, here," Obie said opening the lid for Toni, "you can have a piece. Take two."_

_Toni snatched her pieces with a quick, "thank you," and began running down the steps towards her lab. _

"_You mind if I come down there and see what you're working on?" Obie asked hopefully._

"I've never let him down there and the thought that after pissing me off I'd be more inclined to let him," Toni scoffed incredulously. Sometimes it surprised her how ignorant Obie seemed to be of human emotions. Mind you aside from anger, reluctant admiration and jealousy he didn't seem to have any genuine ones of his own so maybe that was it.

"_Good night, Obie," were Toni's final words on the matter as she hurried back downstairs._

**A/n: This one is longer again yay! And the plot keeps sneaking in as I think again there is more dialogue and internal thoughts than scene! Please please please tell me what you thought of Thor's section cause I rewrote it like four times and I'm still unhappy with it.**


	39. Running Before You Can Walk

Chapter 39 – Running Before You Can Walk

**A/n – I'm so glad that so many of you seem to believe I wrote Thor well. Phew, that's a relief because I was really nervous because there will need to be a lot of them when they're watching the Thor movie. Anyone who hasn't voted on the poll should do so now if they want to influence the 450 oneshot :D A few votes could still change everything**

**cross-over-lover232: Well I hope I can make those scenes good for you to read and I'm glad you're enjoying it. Toni and Bruce could rule the world if they wanted to :) Apparently the Tesseract can. Yeah, Tasha is amazing. I don't have time to fix the slip ups because I update in the early hours of the morning every day. I try to catch as many as I can whilst writing. And no, Toni doesn't work with them around Steve. I think that's Steve's best line too. I'm glad I got you shipping the Bruce/Toni.**

**youwannabekate: Yay! I'm glad you liked them because I usually get annoyed if people portray Thor as stupid because he **_**is **_**thousands of years old and a prince. I was worried that mine came across that way. Yes I am, and yes I did and it was sooooooo amazing! Still prefer David Tennant though /shrugs How's your fic going by the way? **

**ReadPaxJoy: Yes! That was what I was aiming for :) You're very welcome and I really am trying to finish AoA but everyone wants a chapter of this as well so I'm having to multitask**

**Ganondorf-Lover: That is very flattering thank you very much and I'm glad you enjoyed it. At least my 4am typing sprees aren't going to waste.**

**Booklover2526: My explanation for Thor not figuring it out is he is an alien. So many things are different on Earth that he would be trying not to make any assumptions but that's just my opinion. Love throwing in Bruce/Toni; have to add some more Clintoni soon but they're not talking at the moment because of her breakdown.**

**Post U Later: I know; he's a total pain and it is such a relief that he dies in the movie.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked that scene. Glad that you liked it.**

**SpectrumLight: I'm glad that you like me story. And sometimes I'm surprised by how fast I update this story :D **

**Guest: Thank you for telling me that the Thor's part was fine :) Yeah Obie is very freaky**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :)**

**Avengers-Are-My-World-23: You're welcome and yeah I've noticed because I've seen some of the others. Plenty more to write though so there's still time for me to go AWOL. Don't jinx it**

**ReenReen: Well, I think it's perfectly reasonable to make you seeing as it's only a day. And you're welcome.**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad.**

Natasha watched nervously as she knew that the moment where Toni would confront Obie and events would occur that would culminate in the death of the sinister businessman. And before that Toni might get herself injured again whilst working on the Iron Man suit. She had no doubt that Toni would get drawn into the work on her suit just as much as she got absorbed in her more 'ordinary' projects. But focusing on the thrill of the suit and the technology of it might distract Toni and that would only end in disaster. The problem was that Toni's definition of dangerous wasn't even on the same planet as everyone else's. Of course Natasha now knew that this was due to the arc reactor causing her constant debilitating pain that would cause an ordinary person to be bedridden and unable to actually live a normal life but Toni against all odds continued to push through it and live more than a normal life. Yet any other life threatening injury she brushed off as if it was nothing more than a scratch and got away with it because the suit hid her injuries. Natasha could distinctly remember that Toni had used this to her advantage during their first battle against Amora and that she had been reprimanded for it when her injury was discovered. Not that it had affected Toni's reluctance to report in injuries in any way whatsoever in the long run. Or even as a short term thing as she had gone into the next fight with a burn on her arm from an accident in the lab. Natasha could safely say she would force medical attention on her friend if she had to before one of the wounds became fatal and Natasha lost her only female friend/drinking buddy.

"_Day 11," Toni told the camera as she stood in the same place that she had been in the previous test that was shown only this time she was equipped with her new repulsor powered flight stabilisers and more knowledge of what it would take to actually fly, "test 37, configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option Dummy is still on fire safety."_

"Oh dear," Steve murmured quietly. He knew that exposing Dummy to fire extinguishers made him more likely to use them which was why Toni had recently locked the majority of them away except for the few that she had to have on hand for safety reasons. Of course they were more often used by the AI for spraying anyone who wasn't Toni or Bruce who deigned to enter the research labs even if Toni had called them there to show them a new invention. No matter what they did to try and avoid it they always seemed to end up with gas or foam in their face when they entered the labs unless Toni had managed to get Dummy working on something else at the time. It was the second time that this had happened to Steve when he had finally decided that Toni wasn't insane for thinking that her robots had personalities of their own because they really did. There was no way Toni thought ahead to program that into a bot when only Piper and Toni entered those labs in the tower anyway before Toni had become a member of the Avengers and ended up inviting everyone to live with her.

"_If you douse me again and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college," Toni threatened._

"It would probably work better if Dummy actually believed you because he keeps dousing people and you haven't sent him to a city college yet," Bruce laughed, "because you never could because he was your very first AI."

"So," Toni said with a shrug, "at the time it was a fresh threat and I really hated being sprayed with that fire extinguisher because it sometimes messed with some of the tech and I had to redo it which when I was first starting out took me much longer than it does nowadays."

"_All right," Toni said redirecting her attention to the camera, "nice and easy. Seriously, just gonna start off with 1% thrust capacity."_

"If it was anyone else," Phil said shaking his head with a fond smile, "but knowing what 10% thrust capacity of an eleven day old version did I wouldn't be surprised if you hit your head off a wall again."

"No more hitting your head off walls," Natasha interjected quickly.

_She took a deep breath clearly at least a little nervous seeing as her previous tests hadn't gone well and began counting down, "three, two, one." This time the repulsors activated properly despite a few sparks flying out of them. Toni floated there for about a minute before making an unsteady landing._

"That is really impressive for only eleven days of practice and less with the technology that actually works," Clint admitted, "how many tests had you done with that version of the repulsor system before this point?"

"I think that was the first time I used that particular system," Toni said thoughtfully, "JARVIS?"

"Test 37, configuration 2.0 was indeed the first time that system was put to use ma'am," JARVIS informed the listening group.

As she took in the shocked looks from the other Avengers she couldn't resist the eye roll that accompanied her next statement, "oh come on; you know me. I've always connected with technology much better than I have with people. Besides it's really just physics and hello! I have a doctorate in Physics so I know what I'm talking about okay. It was never going to be that hard for me to work it out. Besides that's only 1% and it doesn't sustain flight for long as you just saw. It was easy to float with them; not so easy to direct myself at this stage."

_Toni turned to Dummy and told him, "please, don't follow me around with it, either, cause I feel like I'm gonna catch on fire spontaneously." Dummy drooped a little upon hearing this comment clearly upset._

"You should let Noble Dummy wield his fire extinguisher as he wishes," Thor said with a frown.

This resulted in a very audible scoff from Clint as he muttered, "that's easy enough for you to say. You don't go to the lab often enough to get doused by him regularly so you still find it amusing. If that AI douses me with foam one more time…"

The mere implication of a threat against one of her bots elicited a death glare from Toni and some sort of silent conversation between the two women in the room because moments afterwards Natasha delivered a powerful slap to Clint's face that left him cringing.

"Hey!" Clint exclaimed, "you were my friend first Natasha."

"Yeah well," Toni said, "I provide the alcohol and the intelligent conversation. You provide everyone with a punching bag when you threaten a part of my family." The AI's were the only people in her life that had always been true to her because they were literally incapable of doing so. Hence any threat against them including an implied one was the most heinous thing that could be said in front of Toni aside from comparing her to her father. Even positively that was a no go area as Steve had found out early on in his stay at Avengers Tower. After an entire month of being hunted down by every AI in the building (the fact that every so called common appliance in the place was actually an AI made the frequency of attacks on Steve much easier to explain) and attacked. The most shocking part of this for the time was that Toni had locked herself in her lab for most of that time and had no idea that her AI's were doing this. Yet another clue for the other Avengers that the AI's in the building had their own minds.

"_Just stand down!" Toni told him finally, "If something happens, then come in."_

"Probably the best way to go about warning him off," Bruce acknowledged, "telling him he can definitely still douse you with the gas if something happens straight after chastising him should raise his spirits again."

"And that's exactly what proves that you spend the most time with Toni," Clint pointed out remembering a time when the other Avengers had accused him of monopolizing the time they could be spending attempting to get Toni to trust them at least a little with her in the lab when he could 'easily' have convinced her to come out and join in the team bonding activity Steve had organised.

"Well duh," Toni said before Bruce could speak, "the times that I'm together with the rest of you I can't talk like myself and it gets annoying. So I end up spending the time with Bruce because he actually understands when I'm on about."

"_And again," Toni said turning away from Dummy, "let's bring it up to 2.5. Three, two, one."_

_This time Toni was launched higher into the air by the repulsors and she actually began to move about in the air drifting backwards towards You and the camera. The boots seemed to be releasing some sort of steam from their mechanisms as Toni began to move in the opposite direction at a rapid pace trying to steady herself in the air._

"It does look harder than you make it out to be now," Clint admitted reluctantly. It made any laughs he could have gotten out of Toni's mishaps almost impossible because she would be sure just to tell him that he could try out some of the old tech and he knew that a) Natasha would back her up and Clint would actually end up doing it instead of it being a joke, b) he may have learned more about technology since joining the Avengers and meeting Toni but he probably wasn't even proficient enough to take off and c) after being humiliated by Toni having to help him take off he would probably pull a Toni from the first test they'd seen only he would probably seriously injure himself and end up in Toni's medical bay.

_Toni in her attempt to control the direction she was travelling in actually made a turn to the left and ended up hovering over her cars muttering, "Okay, this is where I don't want to be!"_

Steve wasn't sure he wanted to watch this scene if any of those cars was even slightly damaged in the process of Toni testing her suit. He had been curious about exactly how much Toni was actually spending on trivial items since he had just found out that money would now buy less now so something that technologically advanced had to be expensive. And unlike the suits and Toni's other technological advances he could actually look up the prices of cars even if it took him much longer to work Google than it would anyone who was born and raised in this century. The sheer amount of money that Toni had spent on the cars in New York had made him deathly afraid to go anywhere near one of them in case he scratched it because even that had to be expensive to fix on a car that expensive. He hadn't even taken into account then that those were just the cars here in New York and Toni obviously had residences all over the world with more expensive vehicles in each one. It really put into perspective for him exactly how much petty cash Toni had lying around just waiting for her to spend on frivolous things that she took a fancy to. He was probably lucky that he hadn't seen Toni purchase a bar on a whim yet as she was apparently prone to do because he thought that casual use of so much money might actually cause him to pass out.

"_Not the car, not the car," Toni muttered as she inevitably drifted over car after car focusing on keeping her current altitude so the sparks flying from the impromptu suit from burning the cars. She quickly cleared the cars only to keep moving forward scattering papers and blueprints everywhere as she muttered the word, "table!" resignedly._

"If I was going to destroy something it might as well be papers that I can put back together within an hour from the data stored in my head," Toni muttered, "would have taken at least a day for me to get a rush order of any ruined cars delivered. The other Avengers were growing increasingly surprised at just how used to Toni's remarks they were becoming because this comment didn't even break their carefully composed poker faces. They had reluctantly grown used to Toni throwing money around and getting special privileges because of it because it made their lives a million times easier. Most of them still didn't like the fact that her actions still felt a bit like charity (this was mainly Steve) but they knew better than to undermine something Toni did purely because no matter how much coercion it took to get even a hint of a confession out of her on the subject she really did like them.

_As she was nearing the wall at the other end of the garage/lab Toni raised the repulsors and managed to halt her progress for a second before they sent her flying backwards scattering yet more papers. As she neared the camera again she muttered, "Could be worse! Could be worse! We're fine! Okay."_

"Yes," Phil acknowledged, "you could have ended up flying into a brick wall again and come away with more than a few bruises which I don't doubt you had after that impact."

"I'll admit to having bruises after it Phil," Toni laughed, "I'll even admit to having superficial cuts. But it only happened the once in that first test so don't worry about it. I am perfectly fine at this particular moment in time."

_As she reached her starting point she drew her hands in close to her body and this appeared to steady her as she descended with a controlled turn and made her neatest landing yet. Dummy began to lower the fire extinguisher once again pointing it directly at Toni but she noticed and protested with a loud, 'no!' causing Dummy to droop again._

"Can't you please extend your protection over Bruce to us so I can come and see the updates you made to my Widow's Bites without ending up covered in foam?" Natasha asked knowing that it was unlikely Toni could stop him doing it completely but at least Toni could try and get her some protection from the fire extinguisher wielding AI.

"Probably not," Toni said with a shrug, "I didn't give Bruce my protection Dummy just took a liking to him and decided he didn't need to be doused anymore. I guess you should just spend more time around him so he sees you're not going to burst into flame around him. He's been a lot worse since the Fantastic 4 visited and Johnny Storm insisted on doing his Human Torch act in my lab! So go and take the issue up with him." In fact Toni was quite keen to see this happen because Johnny and his attempts to flirt with her were highly annoying and had been getting more frequent lately as he sensed the tension between Piper and herself. Sue, Reed and Ben attempted to discourage it as much as they could but they weren't always around to stop him. Now that she was single Johnny was going to be even more of a nightmare. That thought actually filled her with more despair than her actual break up with Piper had. It wasn't like the old days where she would just grab a new conquest every hour and he would go away because she refused to be that person anymore so she would have to put up with Johnny being insufferable. He also had no imagination; 'The Thing,' honestly!

"Wait, Bruce got attacked by Dummy with his fire extinguisher," Steve said shocked.

"Yeah," Toni said rolling her eyes, "you just weren't living here when it was happening. He even used to douse me without being told to so why exactly would Bruce be an exception?"

"_Yeah," Toni said breathing heavily, "I can fly."_

"I'm still kind of jealous," Natasha admitted reiterating something she had said to Toni back when she was pretending to be 'Natalie Rushman,' "Flying without a plane looks exhilarating."

_Toni took a single step forward and instantly JARVIS activated the systems that quickly put on the silver boots of the Mark II suit and began screwing in the bolts that connected the exterior surface of her arms to the systems she was already wearing. When he was done she picked up the mask and placed it on saying, "JARVIS, are you there?"  
_

"I didn't know you had another silver version of the suit," Steve said confused, "well at least not one that looks exactly like that."

"It was given a makeover," Toni said quietly not wanting to get into the subject of Rhodey stealing that version of the suit. It was almost painful for her to see it in his original form seeing as the army had mutilated it and Rhodey had attacked her in it. Of course it had been virtually useless for some of the purposes she commonly used the suit for today but still she had created it and she got territorial over her inventions especially her AI's and her suits.

"_At your service, ma'am," JARVIS informed her as the HUD within the suit fired up at Toni's command of, "engage Heads Up Display."_

"_Check," JARVIS informed her._

"_Import all preferences from home interface," Toni told him._

"And this is when you put JARVIS into your suits," Natasha said, "didn't realise he was in some of the earlier models. Mind you I wouldn't know how far apart some of the suits are from each other technologically wise and there is no point in explaining it because even Bruce might not get it."

"I probably wouldn't," Bruce admitted, "engineering definitely isn't my field."

"_Will do, ma'am," JARVIS responded._

_As Toni looked around the room targets on the HUD focused on each of her cars displaying the details of each flickering across the screen and sliding to the side almost immediately to make way for new information._

"I will never understand how you are able to process that much information that rapidly Friend Toni," Thor informed her.

"Trust me you don't want to," Toni said wincing, "I accidentally gave Charles Xavier and Jean Grey headaches the first time I met with the X-men because they got into my head and couldn't cope with what they found."

"_All right," Toni said as yet more information flashed before her eyes, "what do you say?"_

"_I have indeed been uploaded ma'am," JARVIS relayed to her, "We're online and ready."_

"I've been meaning to ask," Clint said abruptly, "why does JARVIS have a British accent?"

"I felt like it when I was making him," Toni said with a shrug. There really had been no other reason for making JARVIS British other than the fact that at the time she had kind of had an obsession with the accent and it had become part of the AI's character.

"_Can we start the virtual walk-around?" Toni inquired._

"_Importing preferences and calibrating virtual environment," JARVIS stated. _

"_Do a check on control surfaces," Toni told him._

"_As you wish," JARVIS replied and the shot changed to show the exterior of the suit as all of the flaps and joints began to move around working their way up the suit just to check that everything was working as it should be._

"Had to be able to move in the thing," Toni muttered.

"_Test complete," JARVIS said as the shoulders of the suit stopped moving, "Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics."_

"_Yeah," Toni said indicating that wasn't her plan, "Tell you what. Do a weather and ATC check. Start listening in on ground control."_

Steve paled upon hearing this. Surely she wasn't actually going to take off on a suit that she had only just confirmed worked whilst still on the ground. Mind you this was Toni; anything was possible with her.

_JARVIS brought up the relevant information for her but was clearly against the idea of jumping straight in to a test flight, "Ma'am, there are still terabytes of calculations needed before an actual flight is…"_

"Just this once I hope you listened to JARVIS," Bruce muttered quietly knowing that his wishes were going to be in vain. Toni didn't listen to JARVIS about situations like the one on the screen nowadays and he had no doubts that she was just as reckless and stubborn back then if not more so because she didn't feel she had anyone but Piper and now she had the rest of the Avengers as well as Phil.

"_JARVIS!" Toni interrupted carefully, "Sometimes you got to run before you can walk."_

"Great," Natasha sighed, "Toni's about to blast off in an experimental suit. Can this scene get any worse?"

**A/N – Err… obviously yes Natasha. Sorry, this isn't as long as my normal Monday updates but I typed this in like an hour because I've been very ill all day and I thought I wouldn't manage to get this up at all. So, any mistakes are probably because of that too :) **


	40. An Icing Problem

Chapter 40 – An Icing Problem

**A/n: OMG! This is chapter 40 and we passed 450 reviews. Excuse me while I faint; this is incredible! So, the Avengers meeting Rhodey one but of course I have to finish the other oneshots for this verse first. Back to the old fashioned method for the next prize. My 500****th**** reviewer will also get a oneshot. Thank you to everyone for wishing me well :) AoA is OFFICIALLY UP! Finally :) Sorry it took so long**

**cross-over-lover232: Guess I don't really need to leave you a message here but I feel like it anyway :D So hi! BTW Toni doesn't react to that statement because she doesn't want to stay on that topic. **

**nessa11997: You're welcome! **

**Tranquillity's Chaos: I'm glad that you look forward to my updates :) That's a lot to look forward to :D Hope those scenes are satisfying for you once I write them**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX and Booklover2526: I'm glad you liked it and thank you for the well wishes**

**Dragones: I'm really glad that someone liked that section because I couldn't resist throwing it in. Besides I have to set up their involvement in the sequel somehow. Thank you :)  
**

**Smiles123: I'm glad that you like the Natasha/Toni and Clint/Toni moments :) I'm trying hard to set up dynamics between as many characters as I can**

**paisley15: I'm glad that you liked it :D Yeah, their reactions are going to be fun to write even if that scene isn't fun for the team :) I didn't really think she would somehow**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I know poor Natasha :( I'm glad that here she can have a female friend :D Yes, Toni needs to be more careful as does Tony /nods**

**ReadPaxJoy: Yes, well I had to introduce them and the X-men somehow :D And yes he probably will because you just gave me the plot bunny that will insist on it. I have extra tissues in case I need them whilst writing**

**twilightjazz: I'm glad that you love it. I have no idea when the action will kick off again because I never know how much I'll cover per chapter. Toni's full name is Antoinette Margaret Stark in my headcanon :) **

"_Ready?" Toni asked JARVIS before she began yet another countdown, "In three, two, one." On her final count she assumed the position that had worked the best for making a landing earlier and rose much more smoothly than any of her other attempts. _

"I can't believe you're actually going through with testing something that experimental without running millions of tests especially since you are actually inside it and in danger if something goes wrong," Bruce exclaimed, "well actually I can, it is you after all, but nevertheless it's highly dangerous even for you."

"Let me be honest here," Toni sighed, "JARVIS could have run as many simulations as he could – which adds up to a substantial amount – but they never would have measured up to the exact conditions the suit would have to face. Plus, a lot of the simulations wouldn't be possible with me in the suit and what would the point of been if the suit was technically working perfectly but it couldn't handle the extra weight and I ended up dead."

"She has a point," Natasha admitted reluctantly although she would still have preferred that Toni would have at least run all the tests that could be performed with her inside the suit before she dove in to testing the suit under conditions that she couldn't control.

_Now that she was in the full suit it seemed to be easier for Toni to move as she tilted forward and sped off at high speed through the tunnel that she normally used to get her cars out of the basement. _

"It does look like fun though," Clint said admiring the speeds that the early version of the suit was getting up to. He knew that it would make several people that he was acquainted with to even think about making turns in something like that at a 'reasonable,' speed never mind at the pace Toni was pushing the suit to but he was among the few who thought it looked exhilarating. Mind you he might just be used to it with the amount of times Toni had picked him up during battles to transport him to a better vantage point or to get him out of imminent danger. She often joked that Clint was using her as a free chauffeur to get him around.

_Toni whooped with pure joy as she spiralled out of the tunnel obviously loving the adrenaline rush that flying at those speeds was giving her._

"Biggest adrenaline rush ever," Toni said with a wistful sigh, "I get it every time I make an upgrade to the suit and it can suddenly do something new. It's not the same as it was that first time though."

"So that's why you make so many upgrades just for a couple more miles per hour," Natasha realised, "I just thought you had gone overboard and had gotten so used to making the suits that it was part of your routine."

"Well, having more suits than I should need never does me any harm as you saw in the previous film," Toni pointed out, "they're all fitted with recall devices now so they will fly on if I'm wearing these bracelets." Here she held up her wrests showing two intricately decorated bracelets that resembled the ones she had slipped on whilst talking to Loki, "I had to decorate them a bit more of course and create several different versions so I could wear them with everything and stop it becoming suspicious but it's a lot easier than what happened in Monaco."

This closing statement of course confused everyone but Natasha who had been there for the event. Yet, they simply decided that if it was important it would surely be shown in this movie or referenced in another one. They had learned not to bring large issues up with Toni by this point as she would simply ignore them as she predicted that they would eventually learn about it anyway.

_Toni beamed as she flew a little unsteadily over the Pacific Ocean as her suit attempted to get a lock onto the horizon so that she would find it easier to fly in a straight line._

"You definitely updated the display in the suit too," Steve concluded as he looked at how basic the holograms within the suit seemed to be compared to the ones Toni had been shown using in the fight against Loki.

"Of course," Toni said confused that Steve hadn't noticed this sooner, "I had to update the HUD with the suit or they wouldn't have been compatible with the new technology in it. Besides I made some new innovations in my holographic devices and what better place to check which ones worked the best. It's good to have a first-hand experience of if the tech will work or not and if it worth further development so it can be made generally available. Some of it isn't simply because if we wanted it to be cost effective we would have to charge a ridiculous amount for it and hardly anybody has the money to buy something overly expensive just for the sake of having a better model nowadays. Therefore I keep it for use in my houses only and it isn't a waste of my time to have built it."

"_Handles like a dream," Toni said happily as she made a wide turn through the sky quickly getting the hang of what she had to do to get the suit to be at its optimum for both speed and manoeuvrability._

"I do not see how the use of your suit is difficult if you mastered the use of the current technology within less than a day," Thor said confused.

"It does seem that way," Toni admitted, "but the problem with that theory is that I built the entire thing so I have an innate knowledge of what every single piece of the suit is designed to do and how to get the best out of it. Once I figured out how much power I needed for flight and how much extra was needed to do difficult manoeuvres I had all the data I needed. I only had that knowledge because I didn't delegate any of the tasks involved in making the suit to anyone but JARVIS who relayed them straight back to me. I even covered the menial tasks even though I could easily have made some of the people in my R&D department do them but by making every piece in my lab I ensured that it is very difficult for anyone to figure out how to work the suit. The later upgrades of course explode after half an hour if I don't remove them in the correct way or they aren't returned to the tower within that period of time," upon seeing Steve's worried look she quickly had, "I can manually deactivate it if I have to remove it for some reason and we're further than half an hour away from the Tower."

Steve relaxed upon hearing this as he had been worried that this could end up injuring them but Toni did appear to have thought of everything as always. Natasha however was thinking about something else, "that's why you chose the Mark II; anything else would have been too complicated to teach about."

"I was working up to using the others but of course things went sour before I got the chance," Toni confirmed careful not to reveal any pertinent information. Her statement was as ambiguous as she could make it so that Natasha would still understand but the others would remain clueless. She didn't particularly want them going after Rhodey sooner than was absolutely necessary because she knew that if they found out about his treatment of her trust in him they wouldn't hesitate in going after him for her. It was actually sort of comforting knowing that there were now people out there who would hunt down anyone who hurt her and not just because it would be bad publicity if they didn't (aka Howard). She had never had that before.

_As she flew back in towards the mainland the HUD instantly began picking up details on the nearby landmarks. The main details on the screen were of the Santa Monica Ferris Wheel as Toni watched the rollercoaster rocket past it. Her targeted vision zoomed in on a little boy and girl eating ice cream in one of the Ferris Wheel compartments. The little boy was the first to spot her and he became so distracted that his ice cream fell right off the cone._

"You certainly make an impact on the kids," Steve said.

"As hard as it might be to believe they have an impact on me as well," Toni informed him bluntly, "the thanks that I love getting the most are the ones that come from the children because they aren't thanking us for political reasons, they're simply thanking us because they admire us and they think that what we do is cool. Maybe that viewpoint is a little naïve but I admire the naïveté in a way. I'm glad those children to get to have it."

Nobody really knew how to respond this because Toni Stark caring that much about children was a novel idea. She'd never really talked about them before and while they had seen that she was perfectly nice to the children that came up to her and asked for her autograph or to tell her that she was awesome and that they wanted their own Iron Man suit but she hadn't appeared to be especially fond of them. Only she appeared to have realised what none of them had; the children weren't trying to gain something by using flattery! They generally loved the Avengers. Come to think of it maybe Toni hadn't set up that Avengers gift store chain just to annoy them. Maybe she had done it because she knew that the children of the world wanted to be like them.

_It did not take Toni long to put some considerable distance between herself and the Ferris Wheel covering what would take a car at least an hour to travel in heavy traffic before veering upwards._

"I have a feeling that this part of the test is not going to end well," Phil said nervously. He knew that Toni pushed herself to the limits of what she was capable of whenever she could and he had no doubts that this situation would be exactly the same as any other in that respect. He also knew that Toni had obviously changed the material for her suits seeing as this one was silver and all the later ones were red and gold and looked slightly different. No doubt she was going to encounter a problem with her choice of material.

"_All right, let's see what this thing can do," Toni said as she continued climbing, "What's SR-71's record?"_

"You really are going to try and go that high," Natasha said with a sigh knowing that this had already happened and Toni was still alive so there was no point in stressing about it unnecessarily but she still didn't want to watch Toni pushing herself over her limits again. Mind you who knows maybe some of the reckless things Toni did didn't even hit the limits she had for herself.

"_The altitude record for fixed wing flight is 85,000 feet ma'am," JARVIS informed her bringing up the relevant details on the SR-71 Blackbird up on the screen for her to see. The only other thing showing on the screen was the close up of the moon that Toni was steadily approaching._

"I think you've had your fill of space travel," Bruce stated, "so please don't do any more of it!"

"I make no promises because it may become necessary on future occasions for me to travel into space," Toni replied, "better to not make a promise than to break one. Less disappointment that way."

Bruce couldn't help but wonder if she had gotten that particular philosophy from Howard and Obie and she had managed to convince herself that they were her own views. It did sound like something that Obie would say from what they had heard from him so far and Toni did seem to care about his approval in these scenes although clearly she didn't anymore from some of the comments she had been making about his actions throughout the course of this film.

"_Records are made to be broken," Toni said excitedly, "come on!"  
_

_She kept pushing herself higher until ice began to form over the front of the HUD making the screen falter around the edges and JARVIS informed Toni, "ma'am, there is a potentially fatal build-up of ice occurring."_

"_Keep going!" Toni shouted ignoring JARVIS._

"Toni," Steve said bewildered, "why are you ignoring JARVIS when he used the word 'fatal' to describe the ice build-up?"

"I'm assuming you know what it feels like when you're on an adrenaline rush," Toni responded, "well it was amplified by at least four times because of the experience I was having and I was having trouble focusing on anything but where I was going and pushing the suit as far as I could push it. I didn't actually clearly hear what JARVIS was saying to me. It has never happened since mainly because a) I solved the icing problem and b) I never got the same adrenaline rush from another one of my suits and the novelty wore off as I already explained."

"_Higher!" Toni muttered in a strained tone as the ice build-up only worsened almost completely covering the surface of the suit. Eventually it got so bad that one of her foot repulsors completely gave out and the light in the eyes of the suit began to flicker._

Steve was having great difficult avoiding ruining Toni's $600 armchair again because he was getting really nervous upon seeing this scene even knowing that Toni would recover from this. He didn't actually know how long ago this was of course which didn't help at all because it just meant that Toni could have been pretty badly injured. Anything other than death, permanent paralysis and amputation of a limb was still a possibility and that left an alarming amount of possibilities.

_Eventually all power to the suit cut off and it seized up as Toni let out a strained gasp and then began to fall unable to stop herself from screaming out loud._

Normally Clint would have found the idea of Toni being scared enough to scream funny because the billionaire didn't seem to be bothered by anything that most sane people including SHIELD agents were afraid off. Of course she had that fear of water but after seeing what had happened to her in Afghanistan that fear made much more sense. He also admired the act that Toni had managed to buy Natasha a bathtub because she hadn't just cleared her suite of bathtubs and replaced them with showers. She had done this with the entirety of the tower which meant she was nervous of even having the possibility she would come into contact with a pool of water and yet she was still willing to allow Natasha her comfort after a mission. The mere thought of her doing something that serious for a friend was enough to make Clint respect her even more than he had already. She was very different from the reports he had heard of her. Of course he now knew that Toni had been acting for half of them and that the others had been relayed from Nat's mangled report so he shouldn't really be surprised that Toni was mostly the complete opposite of the reports. It was actually quite impressive that she was still fooling Fury into thinking she was the picture of an arrogant narcissist when Fury was in her own words '_the _spy!'

"_We iced up JARVIS!" Toni said hoping the AI was still online, "Deploy flaps! JARVIS!"_

"So you did prepare for this eventuality," Phil said relieved that Toni hadn't completely dismissed icing as a possible problem, "you just didn't predict that it would get so bad that JARVIS would go offline."

_As the lights of the city became clearer it was clear that some of the ice was breaking away due to the fall but not enough of it, "come on, we have to break the ice!" Toni said desperately._

"Yes," Bruce said getting caught up in the movie, "yes you do."

Everyone else was so caught up watching this scene as well that Toni didn't see the point in pointing out to them that they were talking to a movie and that she was sitting next to them and she was obviously still breathing just fine aside from the usual difficulties she had due to the hunk of metal in her chest.

_Somehow even though she was in free fall Toni managed to grab a hold of the manual release and twisted it causing the flaps to deploy and the ice to come racing off the suit which continued to fall for a while._

"At least you had a back-up plan," Natasha said relieved.

"I always have a back-up plan," Toni said rather indignantly. The doubt that they had in her sometimes was a little unsettling. There were several safety measures that could be performed to save her from that circumstance even in that suit; only two of them needed JARVIS to still be online. Although the switch for the manual release had been difficult to get to whilst free falling so she had improved that in her later models.

_Just as the buildings of Malibu became clearly defined the suit's power came back and Toni levelled herself out and flew between the cars on the freeway laughing raucously. _

"It was half shock and half exhilaration," Toni said defensively upon receiving a couple of glares for making light of the fact that she could very easily have died in that situation.

_She pulled up as soon as she could and zoomed back over the Pacific towards the Malibu mansion._

"At least you were alright in the end Friend Toni," Thor said just as relieved as everyone else. The chair he had been sitting on was slightly signed from the lightning that had formed on his hands due to his worry.

_As Toni lowered herself neatly above the roof hovering mere inches above it she commanded, "Kill power," only the weight of the suit combined with the aerodynamic position Toni was in made it like a missile and it crashed through the roof, plummeting through the grand piano before she ended up in the lab crashing onto one of her racing cars as the car alarms blared and Dummy sprayed her with the fire extinguisher._

Even the sympathetic, "ouch!" that Natasha gave Toni in response to this fall was somewhat ruined by the fact that she was chuckling along with everyone else about the fact that Dummy was once again wielding his fire extinguisher where there was definitely no trace of fire.

**A/n: Hope you guys all enjoy this chapter which I know some of you have been looking forward to. The party should be next and it will be either the next one or two chapter probably.**


	41. Hot-Rod Red

Chapter 41 – Hot-Rod Red

**A/n: Once again; you guys are all really awesome and I hope you read AoA and enjoyed it :) I know ReadPaxJoy did which is the main thing; oh and by the way ReadPaxJoy you totally got added to the dictionary with the amount of times I was typing your name :)  
**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :)**

**youwannabekate: I know right; I want it to be real :D I'm glad you like that part because I can picture Toni's expressions in my head for that scene and it makes me chuckle.**

**ReadPaxJoy: I'm glad you like the character progression in the previous chapter as I'm trying to make it realistic. And the team caring about Toni/y always gives me mega feels. And I'm really glad you liked AoA it was for you after all :D The next one is technically not a side story because it's AU to this story but it will still be fun.**

**McGriddle96: You totally shouldn't stay up just to read this story! Kind of a hypocrite though I normally stay up to nearly 5am to write it. I'm glad you're enjoying it and I'm mega flattered by your unhealthy sleeping habits :D**

**whitetigerwolf: Hey, again! I'm glad that you enjoyed it.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked it :D **

**paisley15: Yep, Dummy is amazing :) I love him. Yeah, I know I'm excited too. And also laughing because Darren Criss predicted the sequel and the basics of what it would be about ages before the news came out.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Lazy person :D Toni needs to buy more furniture period because I don't think anything in that room will be safe after seeing some of the things in later movies. **

**Post U Later: Indeed they are :D **

**Harm Marie: I'm glad :) **

_Toni now back in her normal ensemble of a tank top and leggings kicked her mechanics creeper board out of the way concentrating on holding an ice pack to her head._

"How badly was your head injured?" Bruce said abruptly breaking off his laughter suddenly. The previous events didn't seem as funny when he considered that they had resulted in an injury. The others also now looked more worried than amused and looking at her as if they would be able to spot permanent damage from the fall. They seemed to be forgetting that she had fallen much further on missions and only had Bruce to patch her up afterwards and she had still come out with very few injuries because the suit had protected her from the sheer force of the impact.

"It didn't even break the skin," Toni said rolling her eyes, "It was just slightly bruised and I had a headache for about half an hour before it faded away and I was completely find afterwards. You need to stop worrying about me; I don't often get injured and when I do it isn't even that bad."

"Actually we do," Steve told her but before he could make his next point Toni interrupted with a sharp, "and don't you dare make this about missions Rogers because the only time I should technically have sat out of a battle and it wasn't just you worrying about me unnecessarily was the time that all of us should have sat out and yet we all kept going."

"You were worse than the rest of us," Steve muttered. It was technically true seeing as at one point Toni had been forced to dispose of the trashed armour she had been wearing and summon a new one only during the time this took she had taken several serious hits and had been pretty badly injured. However being able to deal with more than the other two non-super powered Avengers Toni had pushed through it and compared to the others was actually dealing with a lower percentage of pain on her personal scale. The battle had only ended when an explosion had taken out the villain's high ground and put him back on even footing with the Avengers and he had been seriously outnumbered. Now that Steve thought about it that was probably Toni's suit exploding because of the safety measure installed in them and that was something else they owed Toni for.

"We're not using it as an excuse to get rid of you on missions," Clint told her, "to be brutally honest we need you on the bigger ones and even on covert missions you're useful for causing a distraction when we need one. But a) it reduces our effectiveness as a team if we're constantly worrying that a team member being injured and not telling us and b) we're a TEAM so we're supposed to worry about each other."

The team were for once relieved that Clint was blunt by nature as it seemed to be the only thing that had gotten through to Toni as she genuinely seemed taken aback by the comment. Which was in itself not necessarily a good thing because it was seriously worrying that Toni couldn't even believe that someone was worried about her.

_She picked up the coffee that Piper had left for her earlier and then stopped abruptly when she spotted the package that had been beneath it which had a sticky note attached to it that said, 'From Piper.' Curious Toni ripped off the wrapping paper and revealed a glass box with her old reactor framed by a sign that said 'Proof That Toni Stark Has A Heart,' and she couldn't stop smiling._

"I've seen that before," Bruce realised, "although it looked slightly different."

"Yeah, well the one I have now is the second version," Toni said quietly, "it's still the same arc reactor but the design is slightly different. Had to change it up a bit when that one got damaged."

"I thought you said you weren't nostalgic," Natasha said knowingly. She knew why Toni had rebuilt the present Piper had given her but she wanted Toni to admit to it in front of the team.

"Yeah well it was the first present I got since Peggy left," Toni said nonchalantly as if that would make it less of a big deal, "I'm not really that nostalgic but I keep all of my presents it's just that I don't really get any so I don't end up keeping much."

Steve was naturally the most taken aback by this news because he couldn't understand how the man who had made him his shield and had constantly been making new inventions for the general populace had failed to ever give his daughter a present. He had the distinct feeling that if he said this though Toni would revert to snapping at him and he quite liked Toni being honest with them for once so he decided to let the subject go. He felt like despite her nonchalant exterior that admitting that had dropped at least one of her many masks.

This was an accurate assumption and Toni was silently cursing herself for having done so but she knew that Natasha would notice if she reverted to hiding behind it again (she had no idea if the others would to) and she didn't want to sit through the lecture so she left that mask down. She still had hundreds more before they started getting to the messed up person Toni really was and started wanting to abandon her like everyone else did eventually.

_Back in Afghanistan Raza was having his men rebuild the suit that particular arc reactor had powered. Most of the parts seemed to be going in the right place purely because Toni had been forced to leave the plans for it behind when she made her escape. _

"I really wish you were able to take those with you," Phil sighed knowing that it wouldn't actually have been possible as the metal hands wouldn't have been able to grip onto the sheets without ripping them and the terrorists were determined enough that they would have reassembled the sheets the same way they were reassembling the suit. And having the paper inside the suit wasn't the solution because Toni had no idea at the time how the suit would move and couldn't risk adding any extra variables.

Toni knowing that Phil understood why she hadn't been able to take them didn't bother getting herself worked up about what he had said. It just wasn't worth it when she was sure they were eventually going to criticise her for other things she had done. Steve had already proved that he was quick to judge earlier on in this movie. Indeed he had been doing that from the moment they had met because he had been internally comparing her to Howard and for a while Toni had hated him for it and for the fact that he actually lived up to the things that Howard always said about him.

_Raza simply stood there staring into the blank eyes of the faceplate as if he was contemplating the millions of ways he could revenge on the suits operator._

"I do not like this man's expression Friend Toni," Thor informed her, "I do not wish him to come after you and seek his revenge."

"If he hasn't done so by now then I don't think he ever will," Toni replied, "he was intimidated by just me in a prototype Iron Man suit which as I have said on many occasions was a pile of walking trash. From the time I spent with them I know they're not the type of organisation who likes being thrown into a situation without a significant amount of Intel unless it's for a very high price. For a revenge plot they'd get all the information they could on me which considering the fact that most aspects of my life are splashed out on the internet for everyone to see is quite an easy feat. So they'll know that now I've got a team who are backing me up in fights and know they don't have a chance against all of us. Unlike SHIELD agents Raza actually has a modicum of common sense."

_As the shot zoomed in on the helmet it changed to a shot of an updated version of the helmet as a schematic on one of Toni's many computer screens. "Notes," Toni said in a monotone now with an ice pack strapped to her shoulder as well, "Main transducer feels sluggish at plus 40 altitude. Hull pressurisation is problematic. I'm thinking icing is the probable factor."_

"You think," Natasha said bitingly giving Toni an incredulous look. She hated it when her friend made light of a near death experience. Which she seemed to have rather a lot of which was not good for health of her friends because they nearly killed themselves worrying about her as she recovered and tried to stupidly check herself out of hospital early.

"_A very astute observation, ma'am," JARVIS jibed._

As the others began laughing Toni muttered, "sometimes I don't know why I gave JARVIS the ability to be snarky and sarcastic."

"_Perhaps, if you intend to visit other planets, we should improve the exosystems," JARVIS continued as Toni inspected her plans for the suit and told JARVIS, "Connect to the sys. co. Have it reconfigure the shell metals. Use the gold titanium alloy from the seraphim tactical satellite."_

"So that's what the suit is made of!" Steve exclaimed, "I always thought it couldn't actually be made of iron because I know enough about the properties of metals from being around your father to know that it wouldn't do some of the things your suit is capable of but I didn't understand why they called it an iron suit if that was a case."

"The iron part of the name is just as much of a misnomer as the man part Steve," Toni laughed, "you really shouldn't judge people on what other people call them. The media awarded me that name before I revealed that I was Iron Man. And by that point they were too lazy to even change the Man part of the name to Iron Woman so there was no way they were going to make it Gold-Titanium Alloy Woman. Besides it definitely doesn't have the same ring to it."

"_That should ensure a fuselage integrity while maintaining power-to-weight ratio," Toni continued taking a sip of her smoothie, "got it?"_

"That thing looks disgusting," Clint said looking like he might be sick just from looking at the green concoction.

'You should try drinking chlorophyll' was Toni's first thought on the matter but she knew she couldn't say that so all she could think of to say instead was, "believe me it tastes even worse than it looks."

"Then why were you drinking it Friend Toni?" Thor said confused.

Toni muttered something that was clearly meant to be inaudible to the team but Bruce was obviously sitting nearby enough that he caught the gist of what she had said and exclaimed, "what do you mean you hadn't eaten much else since the burgers because you got distracted and needed it to boost your energy quickly?"

"I mean exactly what I said," Toni said defensively, "I didn't have the time to eat when I was in the middle of working and when I wasn't it wasn't like I remembered because I just thought of something new I could do. This discussion is over!"

"_Yes," JARVIS responded, "Shall I render using proposed specifications?"_

"_Thrill me," Toni quipped in a monotone._

_In the background the television was playing as a newscaster was reporting on some sort of red carpet event, "Tonight's red-hot red carpet is right here at the Disney Concert Hall, where Toni Stark's," suddenly Toni's attention was drawn to the television, "third annual benefit for the Firefighter's Family Feud has become the place to be for LA's high society."_

"Oh joy," Toni said sarcastically, "I hate those sort of people coming to my events because they won't stop sucking up to me to try and get exclusive tech or some sort of advert endorsement. That or they try sleeping with me instead which worked more often than being smarmy did although not in the way they wanted because I didn't give them what they wanted. Not so much after I came back from Afghanistan because I knew people would be freaked out by the arc reactor. Haven't actually slept with anyone since."

"Guess it didn't stop the paparazzi from making up rumours that you were sleeping with every supermodel you were seen talking to for more than a minute," Bruce joked.

"Nothing can make the paparazzi stop making up rumours," Toni scoffed, "anyone who tries is completely delusional. You can try and get a restraining order on the most troublesome reporters but the papers just send more so there is really no point to doing it. Just denounce them as quickly as possible and don't bother about the things people say about you; I've been trying to tell people on my staff that for years but they still get outraged with each new falsehood which just adds credibility to their stories."

"_JARVIS, we get an invite for that?" Toni asked._

"_I have no record of an invitation, ma'am," JARVIS informed her._

"Seriously, is this the whole no public appearances thing again?" Natasha exclaimed, "it's ridiculous and your lack of public appearances are just going to further convince people that you're laid up in bed suffering from PTSD! Obadiah Stane is a complete idiot," Natasha knew this was all she could say without spoiling just how much Stane had messed with Toni especially since she didn't know all the details. She just knew that he had ended up dead and the story was an obvious cover up and he was extremely creepy.

_The woman on the news continued now obviously talking about Toni, "hasn't been seen in public since her bizarre and highly controversial press conference," Toni held her old mask up to her face as pictures from the press conference were shown on the screen, "Some claim she's suffering from posttraumatic stress and has been bedridden for weeks. Whatever the case may be, no one expects an appearance from her tonight."_

"They just jinxed it," Steve stated knowing now that now Toni knew that was what people thought she would defy Obadiah and turn up at the gala just to spite Stane as well as to show all the people who thought she had a severe case of PTSD that she was fine even if she really wasn't. Plus he knew Toni and while she wasn't really all the things that the papers said she was she loved nothing more than showing arrogant people up and that she was better than them.

"_The render is complete," JARVIS said bringing up an image of a completely gold suit up on the screen._

"I'm glad you added some red to the suit because that is an eyesore," Clint said wincing before realising that was a potentially bad thing to say if he didn't want to be on the end of a glare from Toni. But Toni simply said, "I agree. I never wore the pure gold one."

"_A little ostentatious, don't you think?" Toni commented._

"_What was I thinking?" JARVIS said sarcastically, "You're usually so discrete."_

Everyone got a few more laughs at Toni's expense out of this comment. JARVIS was the only one that Toni would let get away with insulting her like that because he did it more playfully than full of spite. While some other people might be teasing her as well Toni had never learned to tell the difference, all she knew was that JARVIS couldn't be mean to her because he was programmed so that he couldn't.

"_Tell you what," Toni said as she spotted one of her more flashy cars, "throw a little hot-rod red in there."_

"_Yes, that should help you keep a low profile," JARVIS quipped but Toni ignored him and took another sip of her smoothie as JARVIS added the red to the render, "the render is complete."_

_Toni took a look at the now red and gold suit and said, "hey, I like it. Fabricate it. Paint it."_

"_Commencing automated assembly," JARVIS stated, "Estimated completion time is five hours."_

_Toni rose from her chair and had a look at her watch before quipping, "Don't wait up for me honey," and leaving the lab._

"And now you have to go and crash your own party," Phil said amused.

**A/n: Yep, it's short again and I thought the party would be in this chapter but I realised it really needed at least one chapter as a standalone with no introduction so it will be up tomorrow :D **


	42. Crashing Your Own Party

Chapter 42 – Crashing Your Own Party

**A/n: We're getting closer and closer to the next bits of action in the movie for all of you who were looking forward to them :) Once again thank you so much for all the nice things you've been saying. I haven't had a single unkind review in 41 chapters which means the world to me.**

**McGriddle96: They're still not as bad as mine so /shrugs And one of the sequels will indeed by Bruce/Toni because I just love them :) **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Sarcastic JARVIS is the best :) Glad you liked it. **

**Booklover2526: It might be in here and it might not. It's really the scene that Obie begins to be seen as the bad guy even if it's just because he disapproves of Toni's new direction. It'll be fun to write them getting more and more angry at Obie for all his transgressions.**

**youwannabekate: Yay for adorable Clint! :) I just wanted more people than Steve to be supportive of the team dynamic and this was the perfect opportunity :D Aunt Peggy is one of my fave headcanons**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Aww, sorry but I have to be realistic even if it makes people sad. And Toni is treated badly by a lot of people in my headcanons /shrugs**

**Post U Later: Yeah, they needed the laughs because it's about to get serious again. The pure gold suit was just AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! I wouldn't be seen dead in it.**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :)**

**paisley15: I think it's more of a guest of honour thing than her party seeing as Piper organises all of them :D Glad you liked it**

**babyliss12: I'm glad you like Toni even if you were sceptical at first :) **

**Wolfswaechterin: Thank you for the compliment :) I update as quickly as I can :D Glad you're liking this story**

**ReadPaxJoy: Even if it's your own :D If you don't get to review I'll totally understand :D I'll just look forward to hearing from you on the next one you can review.**

_Toni's Audi R8 once again zoomed down a highway only this one was a little busier than the one she had driven to the airfield on. She weaved in and out of the cars at speeds that not even the R8 should have been able to reach._

"You're still modifying your cars then I guess," Bruce said knowing from earlier on in the movie that Toni had gotten started on that part of the family business at the age of six.

"The car companies started paying me to work out how their engines could be improved after people started trashing their cars trying to get them to the speeds the tuned up versions I created could," Toni told him, "but people were claiming on the insurance saying that the cars obviously had the potential to go that fast and saying that there should have been a warning. People were winning the cases until someone called me up and got my testimony that I had fiddled with the engine to get that much speed and they could no longer claim. But the customers still wanted those speeds so I began working freelance for the companies which were willing to provide the best investment for Stark Industries. So I end up switching it around every three months or so."

Any shocked looks that followed this description were met with a glare and a snide, "I ran a business for nearly fifteen years. Yes, Piper handled most of the paperwork but I didn't always have Piper. I know how these things work they just mess with my creative processes so I try not to think about them too much."

_As the R8 pulled up outside the benefit the valet noticed the number plate and immediately ran over to open the door for Toni and offer her his hand to help her out of her car. Toni accepted it but that was probably because she was wearing a floor-length red dress and killer heels. _

Clint let out a loud wolf whistle at the sight of Toni all dressed up as he only saw her dressed like that at the benefits they occasionally all had to attend. He didn't like them at all and as such had arranged his SHIELD missions to overlap with them as much as possible. And the few that he had been forced into attending Toni had spent so much time socialising and networking for the Avengers that she was always completely surrounded by diplomats and politicians.

"I'm very impressed that you were able to drive in those shoes," Natasha said distracting Toni just before she began tearing into Clint for wolf whistling at her as she found it quite disrespectful.

"Why would it be impressive to drive in high heeled shoes Friends Natasha and Toni?" Thor said. He had only driven in an Earth car once or twice and those times had inevitably ended up in at least moderate damage to the car in question. He just couldn't get a grasp on the multitude of buttons and what they were all supposed to do. To this day he was still convinced that the air conditioning was the button that controlled the brakes.

"Heels are not convenient for using the pedals Thor," Toni explained, "especially stilettos which are the type of heels I normally wear to parties and galas. They often slip off the pedals which means you have to have quick reflexes to compensate and stop yourself from stalling the car. I do it all the time though so I'm used to doing it."

"Quick reflexes are a bit of an understatement," Natasha pointed out, "you barely have a second before the car stalls and when it's a sports car it can be pretty painful."

"True," Toni acknowledged.

_As Toni walked onto the red carpet more and more people began to notice her and try and catch her attention as Obadiah Stane was making a statement to a reporter trying to save Stark Industries stocks, "Weapons manufacturing is only one small part of what Stark Industries is all about, and our partnership with the fire and rescue community…"_

"As much as I hate to admit it that is actually a pretty good recovery," Natasha sighed. She wasn't keen on the idea of thinking that Stane was good at anything but he had proved himself to be a decent liar and she guessed he had to be good at running a business too if he was friends with Howard Stark and took over for him whilst Toni was AWOL. Still, he had more faults than he did benefits and that on top of his smarmy 'I Know Best' attitude was enough for Natasha to be glad he was dead. Toni still flinched every time his name was mentioned in conjunction with some sort of 'good work,' the military would claim he had done and through all the people who raved on about what an amazing person he had been.

_Suddenly Obie was distracted from the interview as people began screaming in a way that could only signify the arrival of Toni Stark herself to everyone's shock including judging by his facial expression Stane's._

"Stane didn't know you at all either," Steve pointed out, "even I knew that you wouldn't be able to stay out of public for longer than a few weeks. I'm surprised you made it that long."

"Stane knew me the least out of everyone in this film so far," Toni scoffed, "didn't consider me worth the effort as he was the one controlling my public appearance and that was all he needed to control the media to follow his own interests and that's what he was interested in."

"_Hey, Toni, remember me?" a particularly slutty supermodel asked but Toni quickly dismissed her with a, "sure don't."_

"One of the few girls that I truly regret sleeping with because she was just plain clingy," Toni said her face twisting into an expression of pure disgust just looking at the girl who looked like she was made of plastic.

"One of the few?!" Bruce said incredulously.

"Well," Toni told him, "I wouldn't sleep with any of them anymore without a relationship purely because they'd need to know about the arc reactor beforehand. Well not purely but it's one of the biggest reasons. Besides why should I regret doing something that if it hurt anybody it was me? Those girls don't regret it so why should I. I had some fun and now I don't do that anymore so it should be a non-issue. Not like I bring them back to the tower on a regular basis or anything."

"_You look great, Hef," Toni said patting the back of a guy who was surrounded by a bunch of giggling girls although when he looked around Toni had already passed him and he seemed to think he had hallucinated her words._

"Isn't that the guy who still believes that everyone other than Toni is a hoax?" Steve realised.

"That would be Hef, yes," Toni laughed, "and he only believes that the Iron Man suit isn't part of the hoax because he was at the Stark Expo where it was displayed."

"_We're going to have a great quarter," Obadiah said attempting to return to his interview as the other reporters began shouting out Toni's name desperate to be the first to get a statement from the woman herself. _

"_What's the world coming to when a girl's got to crash her own party?" Toni quipped not at all bothered about interrupting Obie mid-statement._

"I'm pretty sure that's the first party I've ever had to crash," Toni said thoughtfully, "and I was my own. Normally it's the opposite and my schedule can't actually take every party I'm invited to because so many of them clash and even if I struck those off the list and just went to all of the ones that were physically possible for me to go to the company would crash and burn because I wouldn't have the time to make anything. And that's not including my own parties impromptu or necessary."

"_Look at you," Obie said with an obviously fake smile, "you look gorgeous. Hey, what a surprise! Wasn't expecting to see you here."_

"_I'll see you inside," Toni told him bluntly before beginning to try and navigate her way towards the building through the crowd that was still clamouring for news about her supposedly self-imposed seclusion after dropping a massive bombshell on her investors and board and her sudden reappearance. _

"You knew something was up," Clint said. This statement was based on the fact that he had begun to suspect a while ago that Obie had filed the injunction against Toni because he clearly wasn't happy with her new direction any more than the board was. And Obie's poker face was especially lousy in that moment (not that it wasn't always lousy as he had proved earlier on) and Toni could see through people almost as well as the spies on the team could.

"Of course," Toni replied, "his poker face is the absolute worst poker face in the world. And I knew he didn't like the way I was going as I matured after Afghanistan desperate for the Toni who would follow him blindly because he was the only one who was nice to me."

_Obie quickly tried to stop her from causing any problems in his plans though by halting her with a quiet, "Hey. Listen, take it slow, all right? I think I got the board right where we want them."_

"Right where you want them you mean," Bruce snapped having realised what Obie's real intentions with the board were and they certainly weren't directed at making himself and Toni look like an inseparable team who supported each other's decisions. Thor also recognised the look in Stane's eyes from several encounters he had on Asgard during royal meetings but he was hoping that on Earth those sorts of men could be identified by something different as he didn't want that sort of man close to Lady Toni attempting to influence her decisions. After all so many other things were different from Asgard here on Midgard so why wouldn't this be. But deep down he knew this hope was in vain because people's emotions seemed to be the only variable that remained the same.

"_You got it," Toni said playing along perfectly her poker face in comparison to Stane's was absolutely flawless, "Just cabin fever. I'll just be a minute."_

"You'd think Stane would learn from merely being around your poker face Toni," Phil said, "how can someone's poker face remain that lousy when you work in business? Aren't businessmen supposed to be able to lie there way out of situations?"

"Not all of us are international super spies Phil," Bruce pointed out.

"Besides not having a poker face in business can be just as useful as having one because people believe that you're always telling the truth and so they trust you more as they believe you can't lie without a poker face," Toni said providing the voice of experience on the matter, "but you can tell a half-truth and it will sail past the radar unlike a lie which can become twisted up and leave gaping holes for people to use to pick apart your story. It's not a technique that I usually use because I can keep my facts straight but I've been known to tell half-truths in business deals on occasion."

"You lie to investors?" Steve said not quite able to grasp the concept that in business everybody lies. And that believing Toni's lies was a lot better than falling for someone else's because if you were truly a good person and you were passionate about your work then you would get more than she had promised you to get you to join up in the first place after she had developed the needed goods. But if you were bad for the company because you were only looking out for your own interests and trying to cheat Toni out of something then you would probably end up splashed all over YouTube and Facebook under the headline, 'Toni Stark Disses Another A**Hole,' and be vilified in the press because Toni knew exactly how to twist things. She did not appreciate gold diggers and bottom feeders in her company who weren't willing to work for a living. Even her secretaries tended to be dedicated family woman who needed the job and the money rather than the slutty blondes that some businessmen preferred to entertain their guests. Many former housewives who had fallen on bad times suddenly became stunningly well off as Toni sought out as many of them as she could and found a place for them in her company. In a way they reminded her of her mother who had totally lost herself in her marriage to Howard because he liked women who were the opposite of Maria Stark. This was another reason that Toni couldn't understand why he had felt the need to marry Maria and make her the woman he wanted rather than settling for one of his many devoted followers.

"Everyone lies in business Steve," Toni said rolling her eyes, "otherwise the economy would grind to a halt. Normally I don't need to because my work speaks for itself but I've sweet talked my way out of rough patches for the company for with a few half-truths and yes outright lies. I guarantee I'm one of the most genuine businesswomen in the world and I should know because I spend a lot of time around them.

_Inside the hall people were milling around on the dance floor swaying in a feeble imitation of an actual dance whilst they chatted and chugged down their glasses of champagne. The open bar also had a multitude of people gathered around it picking up a new glass of bubbly or of something stronger._

"Looks about as interesting as all of the other ones you go to," Natasha deadpanned. The events were thoroughly boring and everyone there was either a suck up, a poser or one of Toni's 'friends,' who didn't seem to know her at all.

"Except for that one gala we both attended," Toni said with a smirk.

"Oh yeah," Natasha said wondering how on Earth she had managed to forget about that one, "that was fun. The looks on the faces of the condescending assholes who were talking to us were hilarious."

The others thought about asking what all that was about and how they had somehow managed to make one of the boring events fun for the both of them as well as put some guys who were probably hitting on them down but their smirks put them of. Evil was too small of a word to describe those expressions.

"_Give me a Scotch," Toni said as she walked up to the bartender, "I'm starving." Right next to her at the bar was none other than Phil Coulson himself._

"It was a very boring party," Phil said simply when he was thrown a few looks that were basically asking why he hadn't mentioned being there before.

"_Miss Stark?" he asked causing Toni to turn to him giving him a smile and a quick, "yeah?!"_

"_Agent Coulson," Phil informed her as Toni realised that she recognised the name she seemed to run it through her memory before she placed it, "oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, the guy from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."_

"I'm impressed that you remembered that after only a passing mention of it from Piper," Clint said knowing that even he had fumbled over the exact name a few times before getting it right.

"I have mentioned several times now that my memory rocks," Toni said with a shrug, "well it really does. And I'd never heard of them before apart from on a few papers that I briefly glimpsed over the years before they were hidden away in filing cabinets or shredded. So I was curious."

"And it was after this meeting that you decided to hack into our systems and get that redirect," Natasha said, "although I guess they aren't really our systems for much longer as we're quitting so I should probably stop calling them that now. SHIELD's systems then."

"Yeah," Toni said slightly amused at Natasha's last comment, "this is the meeting that made me certain I needed to know more about an organisation that wanted to interrogate me on how I got out of Afghanistan. Especially since the name included the word 'Homeland,' coupled with the word 'Enforcement,' which made me think side branch of the army only it turned out to be much more than that."

"_I'm impressed that you remembered," Phil said pleased._

"_You really do need a new name for that though," Toni said with a more genuine smile this time as she took a sip of her Scotch. She appeared to have deduced that Phil was the kind of guy who would be more receptive to her real personality and that he had the kind of personality that she wouldn't mind being like that with._

"Should have known that you two clicked instantly," Natasha said rolling her eyes.

"_Yeah, I hear that a lot," Phil quipped, "We're still working on it."_

"I still cannot believe how long it took you," Toni laughed, "I figured out the acronym the minute I heard it. If it took you much longer I might even have told you just to call yourselves SHIELD."

**A/n: Toni's dress is on my profile but the heels I imagine her with don't actually exist so just make up your own pair that match the dress :) The next half of the party should be in the next chapter and then it's angry Toni time as she blows shit up :) WHOO! Love y'all **


	43. Just One Dance

Chapter 43 – Just One Dance

**A/n: Here we go the continuation of the party scene :) Thank you all for your reviews :D You're all awesome**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm hoping Toni is just generally awesome but I agree angry Toni is better :D Glad you liked it.**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :)**

**Post U Later: Even in canon I think if Tony and Phil had spent more time together so Phil saw the Tony underneath they would have gotten along as they were already beginning to circa Avengers. So Toni just sped up that process :D**

**paisley15: Me too, mainly because it proves they're passionate about something. Enjoy the scene :)  
**

**Booklover2526: I've already left several clues as to what happens in this chapter in IF and earlier on in this story. **

**ReenReen: I'm glad you are looking forward to the chapter so much although the skipping is kind of strange. Glad you liked it :D**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Yay for not being lazy! If I was lazy you'd never get these chapters :) I've never driven in a car in stilettos but I have worn them so I can imagine how hard it would be. Can walk in them just fine though**

**Frostfire613: This may seem kind of blunt but here is my response. This story is AU but not wildly so I'm trying to maintain as many aspects of the original movies as I can which means Toni/Piper however Toni is not the exact same person as Tony so she reacted differently in the second scene you reviewed. **

**ReadPaxJoy: She's Toni, she does that :D And stilettos are sore so Toni deserves kudos for pulling them off I think. Until next time :)  
**

_Phil sighed clearly not wanting to get into the real reason he was there when it was the first time Toni had been seen in weeks and it was at an event where she was supposed to be enjoying herself, "Listen, I know this must be a trying time for you. But we need to debrief you."_

"That debrief ended up being about a lot more than I ever thought it would," Phil commented, "what you see is never quite what you get with you right Toni!"

"With me it's in for a penny, in for a pound almost every day," Toni stated simply, "that's the motto I mould my life on. Everyone expects some of the stuff I do but they never know exactly what things will come with it that they weren't expecting."

"I think they get a little more than a pound for every penny with you," Natasha pointed out.

"Not really," Toni said, "but my perception of how much information is only a small amount of information is very different from anyone else's and I fully acknowledge that. I just think that other people's lives must be very boring because of that fact."

"_There's still a lot of unanswered questions," Phil continued as Toni spotted Piper on the dance floor dressed up in an obviously expensive suit, "and time can be a factor with these things."_

"Only in cases when the details were clearly going to become less clear over time as the vic-subject," here Natasha fumbled over her words trying to call Toni a victim and get the patented Toni glare, "forgets them. I think that's a non-issue in Toni's case Phil."

"I didn't know that at the time," Phil pointed out, "you're getting too caught up in the movie again. This was the first time I'd ever met Toni in person instead of just someone affiliated with her and I usually didn't put too much faith in their accounts seeing as all of them seemed to contradict each other in some way. Hence they couldn't be considered viable opinions in my information gathering even if a few of the things they said turned out to be true in the end."

"He does have a point Nat," Clint said hesitantly sure that he was going to get slapped again for the comment but she seemed to accept that he was speaking the truth and didn't think it was worth a response which would only further validate his point.

"_Let's just put something on the books," Phil was still speaking to Toni as Piper noticed the pair and gestured that Toni should come over to speak to him instead. Toni mouthed, 'what?' at him wondering why he wanted her to come over and talk to him at an event._

"I thought you were ignoring me for a moment before I noticed that Piper was in the crowd," Phil informed Toni.

"I'm sorry about that but it was really strange for Piper to approach me at an event. Usually we tried to avoid being overly friendly in public unless it was at a press conference where we had to be seen discussing things. If the board knew just how much my PA was confronting me and calling me out on not really doing my job they would have gone public with it and many important businessmen we needed deals with at the time would have demanded that he be fired. That would have pleased the board of course because they preferred the typical secretaries that they tried to foist off on me before I pulled the maths trick on them and agreed that Piper could be my PA."

"You don't exactly need to apologise for Piper," Phil said uncomfortably, "you don't control his actions." It was another thing that he noticed Toni quite often did and that was blame herself for the actions of others as if she could control them and had failed at it. Natasha had informed him when Clint and Toni had gone off during their break (apparently to test some sort of new training facility in the basement judging from their conversation when they came back into the room) that one of Toni's first reactions to finding out that he was 'dead' was to say that he was stupid for not waiting for someone else to be there before confronting Loki. Knowing Toni better than most he could accurately guess that what she really meant by that statement was probably that he should have waited for her and she should have made him see that before the battle begun so he wouldn't have ended up 'dead.' It was ridiculous but Toni always assumed responsibility when there was no need for her to.

"_How about the 24__th__ at 7:00pm at Stark Industries?" Phil proposed and Toni turned away from the still beckoning Piper for a minute to talk to him again, "I'm not sure what I have on my schedule to be honest although I think it's pretty clear right now. Mind you the company is being difficult right now about my new direction."_

"Understatement," Steve muttered knowing that it certainly was one.

"_Stark Industries might not be the best place to have the meeting," Toni continued, "tell you what my PA keeps beckoning me to come over so I will talk to him and either one of us will call you and set up a more definite meeting time. I'll do my very best to make it at the promised time although I do occasionally get surprise projects that need to be dealt with immediately."_

"It's surprising meeting Toni and finding out she's very different from all the reports on her I can guess," Bruce said knowingly. He had been so secluded in Calcutta that he had only read of Toni's supposed exploits after he had met the women herself and decided that the papers and magazines that could actually quote Toni directly were either obviously out of context or extremely old from back before Toni had changed her views on her lifestyle. There had been a couple of exclusives given to business magazines about the new tech she was building and that was eventually sold to the other papers and magazines too when they offered Toni a high enough price or more shares in their paper so she could stop them from printing the false facts about her as she gained the controlling interest. In fact those were generally the only reports around nowadays that were solely about Toni and not about her work with the Avengers under the misnomer that was Iron Man.

_Toni wandered over to where Piper stood and told him, "You look great now why were you calling me over?"_

"_You too," Piper said nonchalantly, "what are you doing here?"_

"_Specifically I am trying to get you to find out what I'm doing on the 24__th__ at 7pm because Agent Coulson wants to meet me then," Toni said completely ignoring the fact that she knew what Piper had really been asking her._

"As usual Friend Toni you seem to be avoiding the real question," Thor laughed recognising the tactic as Lady Toni was quite fond of it and he had seen her use it on reporters many times. It had been a little too close to Loki's old tactics at first, the similarities smarting and making him want to stay away from the young woman who had helped save Midgard but in the end he had seen that she was not exactly the same person as Loki despite the fact that their experiences were startlingly similar. Loki had let his experiences in life and his perceived wrongs twist his views and make him into the man who Thor barely recognised as his brother. Of course he still hoped that one day Loki would be redeemed and he would start working for the benefit of the people of Asgard and Midgard again. But the Allfather wasn't keen on the idea of letting Loki prove himself and Thor was not keen to argue with him on the matter again after the last time.

"_Are you by yourself?" Piper inquired which Toni answered with a blunt, "yes. I seem to remember buying you that suit about three or so months ago for your birthday."_

"That was the day before you disappeared wasn't it," Bruce realised.

"Yeah," Toni said sadly, "I was planning on giving him my present to him when I got back from Afghanistan the next day but obviously I didn't come back for another three months so he obviously found it in the closet I was storing it in and read on the tag that it was my birthday present to him and decided that he would have it anyway."

"It was probably to remember you by," Clint reasoned having a feeling from the earlier interactions of the pair that Piper had at least had a crush on her even back then because their banter was a little too flirtatious for it to be anything else. It was a bit like the banter he sometimes exchanged with Toni himself however so he might have been reading too much into it because he still barely knew Toni and he knew Piper even less so he probably couldn't tell what either of them considered flirting. Because we he exchanged barbs with Toni he wasn't attempting to flirt with her it just sort of happened and it made her laugh which was always a good thing in his mind.

"_Yeah, I found it about a month into…" Piper trailed off here obviously going by some unspoken agreement in the building that they weren't going to talk about Afghanistan, "anyway you have good taste. This suit is very nice and it's also comfortable."_

"Of course I have good taste," Toni scoffed, "I hang out with the people who design those suits on a regular basis and give them suggestions as to how I would improve their work. Mostly on their dress lines of course because they all want my opinion so they can put a 'Toni Stark Approved,' sticker in the catalogue and send me a free version in the hopes that I will wear it to my next benefit and get everyone buying it. I have more dresses from that sort of thing than I know what to do with."

"So that's where all the dresses in my size that are exactly my style came from," Natasha realised, "they were already in my closet when I moved in and I've never worn them because I thought you had just forgotten to take them out of the closet because I did move in on very short notice."

"I had a whole floor set out for you," Toni pointed out incredulously, "and you thought that everything in your style in the closet was simply a coincidence. Those are for you because a) some of them are not my style whereas they are yours and suit you better anyway, b) I have far too many dresses as I already said and c) we happen to be the same dress size and it's far more convenient to give them to you than go through the nightmare that is selling them on seeing as even if I repeatedly say I never wore them people go a long way to buy something that Toni Stark owned and possibly wore."

"_Seeing as you're now over here, you want to dance?" Piper asked looking over Toni's shoulder to the place where Phil was still standing._

"_Piper, that's not a good idea," Toni protested._

"You were thinking about his reputation instead of the fact that you wanted to dance with him," Steve realised privately thinking that this was very noble of Toni because obviously if Piper had become her only long term relationship then she definitely had feelings for him at some point which probably had to be long standing for Toni to pluck up the courage to ask out someone who worked for her which Toni inherently disapproved of as she had proved when talking about the fact that her relationship with Piper had been kept secret from the tabloids for his sake even though she wanted to publicise it and admit that she was with him.

"_Come on, just one dance," Piper told her and he grabbed her hand pulling her onto the dance floor. Toni didn't offer up much resistance probably partially because she didn't want to make a scene and partially because she actually wanted to dance with Piper and was just protesting in an attempt to save his reputation._

"This is not going to end well," Natasha predicted.

**A/n: Okay, I am well aware that this chapter is really short but the problem is the whole reason I started this story in the first place was that I was so sick that I ended up in hospital and I had time to come up with a rough plan for plotlines which at this stage has mostly been trashed and replaced with a better one. But today I had to go back to hospital briefly and I barely managed to type this out when I came back and I wanted to get it up for you so I broke it off at the first natural point I could find. So my apologies for an under 3K chapter which hasn't happened since Chapter 13 but I did the best I could. **


	44. The First Betrayal

Chapter 44 – The First Betrayal

**A/n: Thank you all for being as awesome as ever and being really understanding about yesterday's chapter :) Seriously you guys are amazing. ReadPaxJoy managed to get the 500****th**** reviews as well so you can ask for another oneshot or choose to give it to the 499****th**** reviewer instead if you'd like. There will be a new poll up for you to vote on for 550 by the time this goes up :) **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Have one confrontation to go :) Enjoy!**

**youwannabekate: I feel you babe definitely. Being ill really sucks. And I'm like the most insomniac person with insomnia in the world I swear so I know how you feel there too. RL needs to get out of my writing but oh well sometimes I can't help it I guess :D Glad you liked it :)**

**Post U Later: Yeah that was kind of intentional; I'm just as massive Sherlock fan and I couldn't resist. This actually isn't a Stoni story; there will be two parallel sequels which will be Bruce/Toni and Clint/Toni respectively. Steve's just the second character because I had to pick someone. And at this point no, Clintasha are not together. Everyone just thinks they are**

**whitetigerwolf: Glad you liked it and I did my best under the circumstances as I had my DVD for about ten minutes to transcribe all of the dialogue I wanted.**

**Booklover2526: Always feel like I should apologise anyway /shrugs Hopefully I'll feel better sometime soon, thanks for the well wishes**

**Ganondorf-Lover: I have the distinct feeling that you are right about that :) Thank you for the well wishes**

**XxXSilverShadowXxX: I'm glad you like my interpretation and I'll try not to worry about length. Probably will anyway but oh well. Thank you for the well wishes.**

**ReadPaxJoy: It was short but it was still number 500 :) So you have the choice that I posted above. Your call :D And I'm glad you liked that scene because I'm not comfortable with writing stuff like that generally.**

**Amara Calla: These type of reviews are the ones I love best because people are making an exception to read my writing and it's really flattering so thank you. And dreams inspired by this story are even more flattering. Glad I inspired some new OTPs for you :)**

**nessa11997: You're welcome!**

"Since when did anything involving me go well anyway aside from the fights I get into in the Iron Man suit go well," Toni pointed out, "even those go sour sometimes as fights are prone to do at times."

"True," Natasha admitted.

_Toni threw a nervous glance at the watching guests as Piper pulled her in close and they started to sway on the dance floor amongst the small amount of other people who were actually using it to dance._

"That's another thing I hate about those events," Steve exclaimed, "they call them balls and galas and nobody actually dances except for those who get dragged onto the dance floor by someone."

"To be fair Steve you're usually the one dragging Natasha or me onto the dance floor to avoid having to answer questions about how you survived being under the ice for all those years and about whether or not you agree with LGBT issues and other laws that have come up since you went under," Toni pointed out.

Steve went bright red and managed to stutter out a quick, "they just make me feel awkward," over the girls laughing at his misfortune. Toni was going to take her moments of laughter as they came because she knew they would soon become few and far between what with Obie's betrayal and her conversation with Piper. What was worrying her more about the second was that she couldn't remember every detail of what she had said to him and it could have been anything about a significant amount of her life considering who she was talking to. She did not need the others worrying about her again over events that had happened a long time ago. Well, maybe not that long ago but considering all that had happened in her life since then it might as well have been a hundred years considering how drastically she had changed.

"_This is making me a bit uncomfortable," Toni said after about a minute of them dancing obviously still concerned about what this might do to Piper's reputation._

"And people still maintain that you never think of anyone but yourself," Bruce said incredulously, "it might actually be funny how wrong they all are about you if it wasn't for the fact that they get so many people to believe what they print even if you've stopped them doing it nowadays."

"The damage was done a long time ago," Toni stated simply, "and nobody's going to forget it overnight but people are beginning to see that the papers had to get at least some of it wrong. It baffles me how they didn't notice the many contradictions before that point though."

"Because like many SHIELD agents they lack common sense," Clint offered as a suggestion and Toni nodded accepting it as one of the most likely explanations for their ignorance.

"_Why?" Piper asked, "We're just dancing."_

"_Well, you're dancing with your boss in front of everyone that you work with and that's not going to look good for you," Toni pointed out._

"And he probably should have realised that before you did just because it was his neck that was on the line in that situation," Phil sighed, "he clearly likes his job no matter how much I used to hear him complain about it to others whenever I was around – which admittedly wasn't that often – but he doesn't seem to have the first clue that Toni can't save him from everything."

"It's a common misconception on Asgard that money and power can solve every problem," Thor said knowingly, "maybe that is what Mr Potts was thinking at this time."

"Probably," Toni said smiling at the fact that Thor understood Piper's point of view at least a little. She supposed her high position in society in America was similar to what Thor would have experienced as a prince on Asgard except for the cultural differences and the difference that came about because technically Toni was lower on the rungs in the US than Thor was on Asgard because he was only one step removed from the top whereas she was only a businesswoman not a politician. Nor did she ever wish to be one because all they seemed to do for her country was mess it up in as many different ways as they could find. Maybe she should go for another degree in Political Science just so she could show them up even more. She hadn't gotten a new one for a while and she had been meaning to upgrade both her Spanish and Biology degrees. She had enough time to do the online courses so Toni made a promise to herself to add classes for those three courses to her schedule. It wasn't like she didn't have the time considering the ratio of the hours she was asleep to the hours she was awake with nothing to do was ridiculous for any normal human being and some aliens and super powered human beings as well.

"_You have a point," Piper admitted, "but you look great and the music's good and nobody looks that bothered yet so let's just keep dancing for a while longer." _

"Sometimes he is such an idiot," Toni sighed exasperatedly. Sometimes she didn't know why she put in the effort to keep Piper in his position. Well she did actually and it was purely because of his ability to call her out on her behaviour if she went too far as her judgement there was kind of skewed. It wasn't for any of the reasons that Piper was so fond of spouting like that she wouldn't survive a day without him because he seemed to forget that she had gone through a long period of not having a PA for more than three days when she hired him. So yes she knew her social security number and if she forgot she could simply ask JARVIS. In fact she could ask JARVIS for anything the problem with that solution was that he was too easy to put on mute when Toni wanted to avoid a meeting and unlike Piper he wouldn't be able to nag her into going. That was basically Piper's job description; stop Toni from skiving off important events by nagging her non-stop. Anything else the woman was perfectly capable of handling herself if she wished to. Mind you Piper had come in very handy at several points during these events by pushing the button that killed Obadiah and retrieving information for Toni. Not that she had gotten to see any of it until after the fight with Obadiah was over and she had subsequently hidden it away in a heavily firewalled folder within JARVIS' coding so nobody but her could ever access it again. She didn't even want to access it herself because seeing all the double dealing had been horrifying for her and almost as bad as seeing the video of her in the cave even if by that point she knew that Obadiah had been trying to kill her as he'd already confessed.

"_I think I'm actually going to have to fire you to make sure this incident doesn't ruin your entire reputation if we don't stop dancing right this second," Toni warned him her tone deadly serious. _

"_I actually don't think you could tie your shoes without me," Piper told her thinking it was an idle threat._

"_I'd make it at least a week," Toni said._

"I'm pretty sure you'd make it longer than a week," Natasha said knowingly, "but you wouldn't have been very healthy by the time Piper came back because you would have stopped eating as well as sleeping and would be absorbed in projects so much so that you might even forget to drink coffee for at least a day."

"Probably accurate except for the coffee part," Toni said, "I once spent three months without coffee so I can cope without it for longer than a day whilst working. It's just when people distract me and I'm trying to work on something important that I take the boost that the coffee gives me."

"She has a point," Phil said, "Again!"

"_Really?" Piper said incredulously, "what's your Social Security Number?"_

"_549-42-6893," Toni recited neatly from memory._

"I can honestly say that I didn't really expect you to know what it was," Clint admitted, "just because you don't seem to do much with the paperwork that you need to fill it in on other than adding your signature as Piper does the rest for you."

"Common misconception," Toni said calmly, "didn't always have Piper for a PA. Sometimes went without one for months at a time so I memorised my Social Security Number at the time and saw no reason to forget about it because I never knew when I might need to put it down somewhere without an assistant there to do it for me. Preparing for every eventuality that I can possibly foresee is what keeps me alive most of the time."

"And Afghanistan wasn't calculated," Bruce guessed.

"Exactly," Toni confirmed.

"_Well maybe you don't need me for that after all then," Piper teased, "I guess I should take more vacation time then."_

"_Yes," Toni said sarcastically, "then the board members will be even more cross with me than they are already because nobody will send them in the reports because you know full well that I'll forget to do them because I don't give a damn about the board."_

"_True," Piper said and the pair fell back into an uncomfortable silence._

"I have a feeling the rest of this scene is not going to be any less awkward," Natasha said with a sigh. Whilst Piper and Toni's exchanges were quite amusing the whole dynamic was sort of ruined by the fact that Toni was trying to protect Piper whilst he simultaneously messed with both of their reputations. Because nobody had gone so far as to accuse Toni of letting employees rise to the top of the ladder by sleeping with them at this point. (There had been one or two who had said this when the pair had officially told the newspapers they were dating but not as many as there could have been.) But Toni didn't have the clout at that moment to deal with supermodels getting themselves into the company and attempting to sleep their way up and when they failed making up a sob story for the tabloids that Toni would have to find a way to counter with solid evidence. Piper really needed to think more or at least listen to his boss.

_Eventually Piper seemed to notice that Toni really did look very uncomfortable and she wasn't just protesting for the sake of it and asked her, "how about a little air?"_

"Finally he took the hints that Toni was giving him," Steve said relieved as he had been getting seriously worried about the situation as it was so public and from the others comments he could tell that this was perhaps more of a big deal than it had been back in his time. Mind you in the 40's women didn't tend to run weapons manufacturing companies or clean energy ones especially companies that had a total net worth of billions of dollars so maybe that was the reason for the change in this situation. Of course there had been similar cases but nothing that seemed to account for just how worried Toni was about the situation.

"_Yes, I need some air," Toni said quickly seizing the opportunity to stop this situation from progressing any further and getting noticed by anyone of significant power who wasn't too distracted by their own dance partner. Phil looked on with a blank expression as the two walked out to the balcony._

"I was wondering what on Earth had gone on because I didn't know of any relationship between them and there were no previous hints of one," Phil explained, "besides I noticed that Toni looked really nervous and I was starting to think I might have to step in and begin talking about the meeting with SHIELD in the centre of the crowd."

"It's a good thing you didn't have to," Natasha said, "I wouldn't want to be the person who had to explain to Fury why someone heard that conversation and asked what you were talking about. Or if he had found out you intervened on a matter that was out of SHIELD's purview."

"_That was totally weird," Toni told Piper._

"_Totally harmless," Piper said defensively._

"Harmless," Clint said incredulously, "on what planet was that harmless because I don't think it was harmless on Asgard either. Right Thor?"

"Due to their equivalent stations in Midgardian culture to similar ones in Asgardian culture no it would be very harmful to both of their esteemed reputations if they lived on Asgard," Thor replied confirming Clint's theory.

"_It was totally not harmless," Toni informed him, "by the way."_

"_We were dancing and nobody was even watching us," Piper interrupted, "and nobody was even watching what we were doing."_

"Wishful thinking," Steve stated simply.

_But Toni was not swayed by this opinion knowing that was Piper trying to make excuses for what he had done, "Everybody that you work with every day... Piper people noticed!"_

"_I think you've lost objectivity," Piper said weakly clearly beginning to see what a mistake he had just made, "I think they just… people… we danced."_

"That was more than just a dance," Bruce sighed, "I would understand if it was an event where everyone was dancing and switching partners but so few people were dancing that it looked like a more intimate thing when you began doing so."

"_No, it was not just as dance. You need to listen to what I've been saying this whole time Piper. Everybody has their exact opinions on me because I'm me and everybody knows exactly what I do with men – and women," Toni said beginning to get annoyed at her PA, "it's totally fine for me to dance with practically anyone else at this party but I am your boss and I see you every day and I am dancing with you. Do you see my point here?"_

"If he doesn't see it after that speech then I'm pretty sure I would have given it up as a bad job," Natasha said wondering how anyone could be so blind.

"_I don't think it was taken that way," Piper said with a shrug sounding more confident now._

Everyone in the room couldn't help but sigh at that including Toni because he just didn't get it! He dealt with gossip mongers and paparazzi and vicious stab you in the back to get ahead types every single day of his life but he didn't think anyone could see that situation as something that was inappropriate and newsworthy and was enough proof to get him fired. Toni sometimes thought they were just looking for an opportunity to get rid of Piper back then so they could fully pass the injunction against her locking her out of even more of Stark Industries when she failed to turn in paperwork and show up to mandatory meetings that they would call specially.

"_Piper it makes you look like the one who's trying to…" Toni said trying desperately to get through to him just once but Piper just kept interrupting her trying to hit home her points, "I just think you're overstating it."_

"I think she's understating it actually," Bruce said as he actually buried his head in his hands due to pure exasperation at this scene. It was ridiculous and so obvious that Piper must have become momentarily blind to his situation whilst this incident occurred.

"_You know and we're here and I am wearing a very expensive dress and you're all dressed up as well," Toni said beginning to ramble as Piper leaned in slightly._

"Please tell me he is not stupid enough to do that in front of the entire crowd of people indoors because people were passing by you earlier and they're sure to do it again at the most inopportune moment," Natasha said slightly panicked one again getting caught up in the action.

"Did you see any articles about it when researching me?" Toni pointed out as Natasha shook her head, "well then obviously I stopped it happening didn't I so stop worrying so much. This happened a while ago now."

_Toni let him get alarmingly close before pulling back and saying, "I am going to go and get a drink, stay here please."_

"_Got it, okay," Piper said stiffly as Toni turned around and walked back into the party._

"Thank God it stopped there," Steve said having been worried despite Toni's statement seeing as the two had been so close to each other before Toni had regained her senses and pulled away making up an excuse to get away from her PA.

_Toni walked neatly up to the bartender and told him, "two vodka martinis, extra dry, extra olives, extra fast," here she shoved a note into the wine glass where the tips were being collected, "make one of them dirty will you?"_

"Why did you order two?" Clint asked.

"Piper's favourite drink," Toni told him, "figured if I brought him one he might be grateful enough to shut up for a bit and let me tell him exactly what he'd done wrong in a manner that he would finally understand. Didn't exactly work out like that though; you'll see why as soon as we go back to watching this thing."

_Through the crowd the approaching figure of a very well dressed Christine Everheart could be seen, "wow! Toni Stark!" she exclaimed._

"_Oh, hey," Toni said awkwardly._

"Don't usually talk to them again," Toni said stiffly, "she's also the last person I had sex with to this day which is kind of disturbing now that I think about purely because it was her."

"_Fancy seeing you here," Christine said imperiously._

"_It is my benefit Christine," Toni pointed out knowing that Christine was referring to the fact that nobody expected her to come out of 'hiding,' for the event._

"Usually you pretend to forget reporter's names," Natasha said confused.

"Wasn't going to be a good approach with her and would only alienate her further," Toni explained, "her expression told me that I didn't want to piss her off too much at that point."

"_You have a lot of nerve showing up here tonight," Christine replied._

"_Like I said, this is my party," Toni reiterated._

"_Can I at least get a reaction from you?" Christine asked angrily._

"I do not like the way this conversation is going already," Bruce said sensing the awkwardness was about more than the fact that the pair had slept together before Toni's disappearance.

"_A reaction to what," Toni said clearly having guessed that this was not about their last one on one encounter._

"_I was referring to your company's involvement in this latest atrocity," Christine said coldly obviously fully believing that Toni was involved._

"Someone's double dealing on you," Bruce realised seeing as it seemed to be the only reasonable explanation for Christine's anger. He didn't expect a reaction from Toni seeing as he knew he would find out if he was right from watching the next section of the film.

"_They just put my name on the invitation," Toni said trying to lighten the mood, "I don't know what to tell you."_

"_I actually almost bought it," Christine told her, "hook, line and sinker."_

"_I was out of town for a couple of months in case you didn't hear," Toni said more bitingly now, "so I really have no idea what you're talking about right now."_

"Bruce is right," Clint stated simply having realised from Christine's last comment that she was referring to Toni's promise to give up weapons manufacturing as that seemed to be what she was passionate about.

"_Is this what you call accountability?" Christine said thrusting photos of destruction caused by Stark weapons into Toni's hands, "It's a town called Gulmira. Heard of it?"_

"Oh no," Natasha exclaimed, "It had to be there. I'm so sorry Toni."

_Toni flicked through the pictures with a horrified expression pausing on the one of a Jericho missile and asking shakily, "When were these taken?"_

"_Yesterday," Christine exclaimed angrily. _

"_I didn't approve any shipment," Toni told her._

"_Well, your company did," Christine said her tone of anger not fading._

"_Well, I'm not my company," Toni told her. Her eyes almost seemed to be burning with anger at whoever did this, "let me tell you a story Miss Everheart. I knew someone who lived in Gulmira and he is now dead and I would never approve something that would dishonour his memory. I don't know who approved this shipment but when I do their reputation is going to burn."_

The other Avengers were taken aback by just how angry Toni seemed to be. They knew she would be upset by the news especially since it happened to have occurred in Gulmira but they had never guessed just how frightening Toni would get when confronted with hard evidence that someone was double dealing with her weapons.

_The scene changed to show Toni standing with Obie outside on the red carpet as Obie gestured to some of the paparazzi, "Please, do you mind?"_

"_Have you seen these pictures?" Toni asked sternly. _

"I know something was going on," Toni muttered sadly, "I never expected it to be that bad." The rest of the room decided to tactfully not mention that they had heard that just in case it was supposed to be a private thought.

"_What's going on in Gulmira?" Toni continued her voice becoming angrier and angrier with every syllable she spoke._

"_Toni, Toni," Obie said doing his best to placate her, "you can't afford to be this naïve."_

"_You know what?" Toni said with full blown anger in her voice now, "I was naïve before, when they said 'here's the line. We don't cross it. This is how we do business.' If we're double-dealing under the table… are we?"_

"Remind me to never ever make you that mad at me," Phil said almost scared by the pure anger that radiated from Toni's body language and tone. He had always seen the Iron Man side of Toni but maybe she did have a side that was every inch the 'Angel of Death,' that she had seen her old image as. An avenging angel.

"_Toni, your picture, please," a reporter exclaimed in the silence that this question resulted in._

"_Let's take a picture," Obie said avoiding the question, "Come on. Picture time!" _

"If he had something to do with this…" Thor said dangerously not knowing that Stane was already dead.

_Obie put his arm around Toni as he smiled fakely for the reporters as he muttered to her, "Toni, who do you think locked you out? I was the one who filed the injunction against you. It was the only way I could protect you." With that he walked off taking the reporters' questions with him as Christine Everheart shot Toni what might have been an apologetic look and walked away herself._

"That man has no right to be anywhere near Toni," Steve exclaimed setting off a barrage of anger directed at Stane that came even from those who knew that the man was dead already.

**A/n: Yay! Ill Karma still breaks 4K occasionally. And also apparently talks in third person :) Anyway hope you enjoyed this chapter**


	45. Justifiable Anger

Chapter 45 – Justifiable Anger

**A/n – I know some people were looking forward to this chapter so here it is :) Enjoy y'all! XxXSilverShadowXxX, ReadPaxJoy has chosen not to have a second oneshot so you can PM me what oneshot you want for this verse or give it up if you wish.**

**McGriddle96 and Harm Marie: Glad you liked it :) **

**youwannabekate: Karma thinks talking in third person is epic :) Glad you liked it and that it helped you feel better. Well, there was a lot of it implied but I would run out of bad things to say about Stane if I wrote them all out every time. **

**ReadPaxJoy: Have some more because Toni can get very angry when she wants to :) Every 100 is the plan after the one for 600 is selected just so I actually have time to write them /shrugs Karma approves sneaking things away from your mum because I'm typing this when my mum is asleep for a reason :D  
**

**princessabbie10: Hello new reviewer :) Thank you very much for your lovely review and I'm glad this fem!Tony story has you interested :D **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Glad you liked the chapter and revenge is fun :D **

**Post U Later: I know right. That scene grated on my nerves in canon too so I tried to portray that through Toni. And yeah. Literally the first name I clicked on :)  
**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I can, I take classes :) I did mention a while back Toni is basically me and Tony mixed together so technically it's the other way round :) **

**ReenReen: Tada! Hope you enjoy it**

**nessa11997: You're welcome.**

**Alexandria-reid-Winchester: I'm really glad that you like it :) And this isn't a Stony fic but Bruce/Toni is a pairing :) **

"GUYS!" Toni finally shouted over the ruckus of everyone in the room hurling threats at the representation of Obie on the TV screen, "he's already dead. So your threats aren't going to do anything more than embarrass you when you look back on them later."

Phil and Natasha both looked rather abashed when Toni pointed this out because they were the only two in the room who knew first hand that Obadiah Stane was dead although only Phil knew the particulars. They never thought that they would ever get so caught up in watching a movie that they would forget a simple overwhelming fact. That was their job for a long time after all; not to get too caught up in the moment that they forgot about the facts.

"Oh yeah," Clint said also embarrassed although not for the same reasons, "I think I vaguely remember. Plane crash or something."

"Well can't say I think that's what he really deserved," Bruce snarled angry that anyone would attempt to mess with a person whom he basically considered the closest friend he had ever had even though he did have friends before the Hulk had come into existence. Like Toni he had been looking for someone who understood what he was going on about when he talked about science although he had the added requirement that he needed someone who could at least learn to tolerate the Hulk until he could get rid of him. He never expected to end up with Toni filling that position especially since she ended up exceeding his expectations by far. For a start she was the Hulk's fiercest defender and was the only one who had been able to talk him into working on finding ways to control the Hulk's emotions which according to her were only uncontrollable for him because they were bigger than his own so if he let the Hulk out more and figured out his motivations then he would be able to reign him in. That had proved to be true and Bruce often wondered if soon her theory that if he accepted the Hulk enough he would begin remembering what happened when he was the Hulk. And in science terms; well Toni was far and away more than he was expecting in that field.

_Back in the lab the television was playing the news once more only this time it was tuned in to a more depressing subject, "The 15-mile hike to the outskirts of Gulmira can only be described as a descent into hell."_

"How hard was that for you to hear?" Steve said sympathetically knowing that if it had been him in that position he would have started in on a punching bag and probably ruined more than he ever had before. Being accused of being behind it even if Christine Everheart seemed to have seen the error of her ways there couldn't have been easy either because Toni was more than intelligent enough to figure out that if Christine had assumed that then so would many more that she didn't have the time to contradict before it got out of hand.

"Very," Toni said simply not wanting to reveal the depths of her anger at Obadiah until they saw it on screen. She was willing to admit that she had let her anger get the better of her at that point but she had felt like Obie had been personally disrespecting Yinsen's memory through his double dealing. Of course she knew that it had been Obie from the minute she knew it was going on because he was really the only reasonable candidate. The final nail in the coffin was when he admitted to being the one who filed the injunction against her. Toni had known she could never trust him again after that but never suspected that all that time he wanted her dead. That was the one moment that had assured that she would never bring even one of her walls down again without one hell of a fight to get her to do so. And even then they would probably get one of the walls down that held back a lot of repressed anger and get torn into for she didn't appreciate people who badgered her into being the person that she didn't feel she could be even if she sometimes wished she could.

"_Into a modern day 'Heart of Darkness,'" the news reporter continued, "simple farmers and herders from peaceful villages have been driven from their homes," the view finally drew far enough away from the TV screen that Toni was visible as she worked on one of the gloves of the Mark III suit._

"Why were you watching this Friend Toni?" Thor asked, "It is clearly making you angry and uncomfortable. Why would you put yourself through it?"

"Because it was a reminder of what I did," Toni told him, "and what I had to stop at all costs because what my company was doing in my name was not okay. Plus I needed to know all of the particulars that the news knew because JARVIS doesn't really bother accessing them because they're so biased. But in this case any little detail was important especially since JARVIS had never seen any of the members of the Ten Rings."

"You went out to confront them," Bruce realised slightly worried not just for Toni's welfare as she had obviously come back alive but because that had to be mentally taxing to go out there and face the people who had tortured her for three months. Mind you in a way it could also have been therapeutic for her as ridding the world of those who hurt her so badly might lessen the impact of it as revenge at times could heal wounds that you thought would never close over. And it wasn't like those monsters didn't deserve anything Toni could do to them in her suit because in many ways they deserved a lot more than even Toni could come up with on the spot as he knew Toni would want to just get it over with because despite being a former weapons manufacturer she hated killing. So if there were any members of that organisation left on the Earth that Toni had missed in her crusade then Bruce could guarantee that from the reactions to Toni's imprisonment earlier on in the movie that they would wish Toni had gotten to them first.

_As the news report continued Toni's fist tightened dangerously as her eyes took on a murderous tint in a few of the shots as she spotted men she obviously recognized as the news reporter kept on speaking, "displaced from their lands by warlords emboldened by a new-found power. Villagers have been forced to take shelter in whatever crude dwellings they can find in the ruins of other villages."_

"I can honestly say that I wouldn't want to be anywhere near you if you showed even a hint of that expression on your face," Phil said bluntly because the mere sight of it made him think that Toni would follow through on her promise to burn anyone that got in her way.

The others all nodded in agreement suddenly realising that while each of them thought they had seen Toni at her angriest they hadn't even come close because the glint in her eyes was one of pure rage. Anyone who dared to mess with the billionaire when she was in that state was probably suicidal or just had no sense of self-preservation. He would say that they could also just believe that they could take Toni but he didn't think anyone who saw Toni in action and also knew that she was that angry would actually believe that they could take her unless they were certifiably insane. He was pretty sure that look could send any of the Avengers running and some of them had superpowers which would make it almost impossible for Toni to kill them but it was Toni and god knows if you pissed her off enough she would find a way.

_The words of the report appeared to drift right over Toni's head as she continued tuning up the glove as the repulsor in the centre of it glowed electric blue, "or here in the remnants of an old Soviet smelting plant," as the Ten Rings was shown shooting at fleeing civilians the repulsor powered up as if Toni wanted to shoot an energy beam at the TV, "Recent violence has been attributed to a group of foreign fighters referred to by locals as the Ten Rings." Toni flinched a little as a shot of Raza smoking was shown._

"It was the first moment that I knew he had managed to survive the explosion," Toni muttered, "I started building him up in my head you know after that because it was such an impossible feat to comprehend that he was just another member of the Ten Rings when he survived when the others fell."

"_As you can see," the voiceover said as a shot of the Jericho missile was shown, "these men are heavily armed and on a mission. A mission that could prove fatal to anyone who stands in their way," here Toni pushed herself to her feet and walked forward as if to get a better look at the screen, "With no political will or international pressure, there's very little hope for these refugees."_

Steve took one look at the refugees of the attack by the Ten Rings and felt sick to his stomach because here was something else unpleasant that he unfortunately recognised. They reminded him painfully of the millions of refugees that had flooded into America from Germany and Poland the minute they could get away to escape the war. Thin, ragged, hopeless, starving and utterly haunted from the loss of loved ones and from the horrors they had seen in war torn Europe. It wasn't an image he ever wanted to see again as he had been told they had won the war. But they had lost so much of their humanity in a war that had been supposed to preserve it and more and more atrocities kept coming and Steve wasn't sure what he had fought for back then if it just ended up in an endless cycle of people like that ending up without two cents to rub together.

_Toni threw aside her equipment as she walked away from the sitting area the news still playing in the background, "Around me, a woman begging for news on her husband, who was kidnapped by insurgents." Toni her eyes cold as ice raised her iron glove and pointed it at her work bench and accompanying the phrase, "either forced to join their militia…" she fired the repulsor resulting in an explosion on that workbench._

"This is really bad," Natasha muttered Toni's anger hitting home even more now that she seemed to be willing to destroy her beloved lab just to vent some of the pure rage that was rushing through her body from seeing the report and being blamed for the deaths.

_The news faded into background noise as Toni admired the loose beam from the ceiling that the repulsor had caused from its pure destructive power however one phrase still came through loud and clear, "there's very little hope for these refugees, refugees who can only wonder who, if anyone, will help," at the end of this sentence Toni caught a glimpse of her reflection in the glass wall of the lab._

"That was the moment when you decided you had to help no matter what the cost," Phil deduced knowing that the military had complaints that day about a bogey flying over restricted flight space that must have been Toni in her suit. That was not a pleasant thought as Toni being stalked down by jets was not an image Phil wanted in his head.

_Suddenly Toni completely lost control of her temper and spun around firing three separate blasts that took out every single one of the panes of glass that were there and she stalked away her movements almost fluid._

"She looks like you when she moves like that Nat," Clint said amazed as everyone else stared at the destroyed wall that used to be a barrier between Toni and the outside world.

**A/n: This is basically a filler chapter before we get back into the real action but I hope you liked it anyway. I love y'all!**


	46. A Matter Of Revenge

Chapter 46 – A Matter of Revenge

**A/n: I cannot put into words how glad I am that so many of you like this story. It's unbelievable! As is the fact that new people keep reading this when it's this long as I know when I see a story of that length sometimes I'm a bit like well I don't know if it will be worth reading it now it's that far in. If you haven't done so already go vote on my poll and get your view out there.**

**Booklover2526: Go Toni indeed! Glad you liked it :) **

**Post U Later: I say can we meet in the middle with amazing filler :) I'm really glad that I lived up to any expectations that you had for that scene.**

**ReadPaxJoy: I am really glad that you liked it :) You're very welcome **

**babyliss12: I'm really happy that you enjoyed it and I hope the other scene you are looking forward to is just as satisfying for you to read :D**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I think I'd be more scared of angering Toni than any other woman on the planet and I'm the one writing her. Mind you I have a temper as well so I can't really talk :) **

**ReenReen: I'm glad it was as good as you hoped it would be :D You were saying for a while that you were looking forward to this scene so your opinion means a lot to me :D Badass Toni coming up :) ILY too :)**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I'm just epic like that :) All joking aside I'm glad you like the epicness that is Toni Stark because she's badass and she knows it :D**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :D **

**Luke Black: I am really glad that you're enjoying this story especially since you are one of the group of people are usually aren't fem!Tony fans but read this anyway because it is highly flattering. I'm from Scotland so we're working in a similar time zone there :)**

**maipigen: I'm very glad that you like it so far :)**

**youwannabekate: She is indeed :D And I am so glad that the scene was so good for you and managed to get that reaction from you :) Enjoy ;) **

**Sun Swipe 98: Toni is certainly going to oblige there and I'm really glad that you like me story and the way that I write it. Sorry I couldn't put the dots in your name without the site erasing most of it. There are no pairings in this story but one of the sequels is Bruce/Toni orientated.**

**DaughterofDeath: Hi new reviewer! Have an update :D **

"Toni didn't start learning from me until a little while after this," Natasha told him, "we hadn't even met at this point."

"Doesn't change the fact that her movements there look a lot like you when you're fighting," Clint repeated even more amazed by the similarity now that he knew that the pair hadn't met at this stage. Of course he suspected they hadn't because surely Natasha would have been shown in the movie by now if they had although he had wondered when he saw it if they had met before the events of this movie and Toni had just subconsciously picked up a few things from Natasha just from her body language.

"Natasha's not the only person in the world who can move smoothly you know," Toni told him slightly offended that he didn't believe she could be naturally capable of moving with grace, "with the amount of etiquette lessons I went through when I was little I would be worried if I wasn't able to be graceful by now without any outside assistance from Natasha."

"All I did was teach her how to fight really," Natasha admitted, "she had the grace already but I was expecting it from someone who was brought up in high society especially since her mother was the picture of poise and elegance."

"Would hardly believe she used to mess with cars all day would you," Toni said bitterly. She still resented her father to reducing Maria to the woman that Toni had grown up with instead of the woman her friends had known her as back when she was in college.

_Dressed in the black cat suit she had designed to go underneath the Mark III suit for the first time Toni stepped onto her newly created assembly station for the suit and the floor around her began to open up._

"I have to admit that does look amazing," Steve said, "and extremely complicated. Although the system that you have now is obviously even more so because from what I saw in the previous movie it almost seems too complicated."

"Yet it still works," Toni pointed out, "I don't make things more complicated for kicks. I designed that system because I wanted to be able to suit up or down depending whilst walking just to make everything more efficient. It takes less time and gives me more momentum for manoeuvres that I have to do straight after I take off."

_She neatly stepped onto the base of the suit which was designed for her feet and let the machines go to work as they tightened all of the bolts that were needed to keep such a delicate piece of machinery together. The only thing she needed to do by way of movement was raise her arms so they could be gloved and suited up._

"You do make that look very simple Friend Toni," Thor informed her, "I don't understand how Midgardian science can do such a thing but for you it always appears easy."

"That's the one problem I have with science," Toni told him, "sometimes it feels too easy for me which is why I push myself harder to create something that nobody else has even thought of and experiment in so many different aspects of the scientific field because I have to do as much as possible to keep me occupied. Especially since until I met Bruce I didn't have anybody to exchange ideas with and I didn't have anyone but myself to design for because I hadn't met any of you at that point except for Phil. And Phil wasn't much more than an acquaintance at that stage."

"Which is why your pursue languages and other skills as well," Natasha said knowingly.

"It's something that doesn't come to me naturally," Toni confirmed, "and I need that because I need to feel challenged in some way. Of course my memory does make some things easier than they would be for other people trying to learn the languages I have but overall it's still more challenging than a lot of the other things I do. There is a reason that I only have two foreign language degrees seeing as I don't really count the English one and I tend to focus on the degrees I know I can get. Over time I plan on getting a few more in the other languages we speak."

"If you ever actually choose which one to do it in…" Phil joked remembering the insane list of languages that Toni had presented to them in her long speech earlier on in the film. He couldn't even remember the names of all the languages that she was at least partially or fully fluent in let alone remember all of the words that went along with knowing those languages.

"I was planning on getting something different next so I'll probably get a degree in one of my Scandinavian languages or maybe one of my African languages. I've always wanted to get one in Swahili," Toni considered.

"You just like showing off," Bruce teased, "and saying you have a degree in Swahili is a great crowd pleaser which is the real reason that you're going for that one soon."

"So what," Toni shrugged, "I think if you're good enough at speaking Swahili to get a degree in it and you're American and learned the language by yourself then it should come with some serious bragging rights."

_Soon enough Toni was only left with the helmet to put on as the arc reactor in her chest seemed to glow a brighter blue when it connected with the suit._

"The suit boosts the power to the reactor," Toni said responding to the inquisitive looks a few of the others (namely Bruce) threw her upon observing this change, "unfortunately it does have the effect of draining it too but only if I wear it for a significant amount of time because that particular arc reactor produced 12 gigajoules of energy."

"Wow," Bruce said stunned by just how much power was contained in that tiny device.

"You said 'produced,'" Clint observed, "as in past tense, is that arc reactor different from the one that we're seeing on the screen."

"Yes," Toni said sharply not wanting to dwell on the fate of that particular reactor as it had been destroyed along with the body of Obadiah Stane which was not her most pleasant memory. The next one she had built had the same capacity as the destroyed one as she hadn't had the time to make any advancements beyond a few simple things and she couldn't well remain attached to the one she had built in the cave as it had been almost completely destroyed itself by the energy blast from Obadiah's fall into the big arc reactor.

_Finally the helmet lowered itself over Toni's head concealing her ice cold glare and replacing it with the blank expression that was imprinted on the Iron Man mask and the next shot showed her shooting through the sky._

"That was quite a leap from making a semi-controlled flight solely about LA in the Mark II to actually flying across the ocean and right to Afghanistan in the Mark III," Natasha said, "anything could have gone wrong with it."

This statement didn't help the nervous atmosphere that had been building in the room ever since Toni had completely lost it when Christine Everheart had accused her of double dealing and causing the deaths of people in Yinsen's home town far more intentionally than she had ever caused the death of anyone innocent before. Neither did the fact that Toni didn't respond to the statement and they had to keep watching the movie to find out what would happen when Toni confronted the remaining members of the Ten Rings.

_In and around Gulmira citizens were being ordered around by members of the Ten Rings as they screamed at the sight of components of the Jericho missile raining down on the hills behind them._

Toni couldn't help but get angry again just seeing this footage because what they had done with her weapons had taken the lives of innocent people. Yinsen had never said exactly but she knew it was highly likely that members of the Ten Rings murdered his family and then took him captive because he could be useful to their crusade if they used intimidation to keep him down. The cold look in her eyes returned although it wasn't the same strength as it had been at the time. Thor looked at over at her to ask something but quickly met Toni's gaze and hurriedly looked away deciding that what he wanted to know was not important enough to face that for too long.

_Refugees desperately tried to protect their families as they barricaded the doors to their residences but men carrying guns simply kicked the doors down and opened fire before hauling out all of the terrified survivors._

"Yeah right we won," Steve muttered as watching this footage was only increasing his feeling that he might actually throw up if he was forced to watch too much of this.

_Other doors were blown sky high with dynamite as chaos reigned in the streets. Refugees who fell were pulled roughly to their feet and set going again and everyone who wasn't a member of the Ten Rings had their arms behind their head hoping that by cooperating they would save their lives._

"I've seen so many warzones," Clint said softly, "but nothing makes me sicker than seeing people bossing around terrified civilians who haven't done anything to hurt them just because they can. It's not a fair fight and it's not for any good cause. It's just a thirst for blood that they can't stop satiating even though they have to know somewhere that what they're doing is so very wrong."

_The women and children were being separated from the men as the spokesman from earlier issued orders in a foreign language, "Hurry it up. Put the women in the trucks. Stack the weapons here. Clear all the houses."_

Steve had a feeling that these images would join those that already haunted him in his nightmares for in his head they were already becoming hopelessly mingled together with images of the Nazis separating out the women and children from the men to go to the work and death camps that they had set up. Many of the people from the footage he had seen were not alive at the end of the war and he suspected that the same would have been true here if Toni hadn't decided she would come and get her revenge on the Ten Rings and save Yinsen's village.

"_That one there," the spokesman continued as an entire family came running out of their house huddled together desperately trying to cling onto each other, "Faster. Faster." As the family walked forward the man continued clinging onto his wife and children as the order was given to take him, "grab that dog."_

"Won't even let families die together," Natasha said distastefully, "nobody there would want to die but they could accept it but you just leave them wondering what happened to each other before they die and if they're lucky enough to survive they have to live with the fact that maybe their family member isn't dead but is still suffering."

"Nobody ever said terrorists were humane," Toni spat out, "I don't think they even qualify as being human. Because they don't have anything that sets us apart from the animals of the planet because what they want to do is kill and maim. That's it! Along with getting more weapons to kill and maim people with. But they can't even do it themselves because they have to get captives to do it for them."

_As the family drew closer to the truck the man was pulled away by a terrorist lackey and was ordered to, "put him with the others." His wife and children couldn't stop screaming as he was pulled away from them._

Lightning crackled around Thor once more and Bruce's eyes were flashing green more and more strongly as the scene continued. They needed Toni to arrive and soon but the problem was that the minute she got there Toni was in the line of fire too. But the sophistication of the suit would hopefully baffle the terrorists and give her an easy victory.

_His son managed to slip out of their arms and ran towards his father screaming out for him desperately trying to keep his family together._

"And there are always scenes like that around," Clint said sadly because no matter what there were still times that despite his training that he still remembered the old phrase 'they were somebody's baby once,' and it was always evident after the bodies were counted and loved ones were informed. SHIELD agents could pretend to by numb to those expressions but any that truly were Clint did not want to spend any time around because you could have a heart and still be a spy and an assassin no matter what your superiors thought of it.

_His father broke free for a moment an embraced his son but he still gestured frantically that he should return to his mother desperate to at least keep his family alive if he had to die. "What the hell is this?" the spokesman shouted upon seeing the scene._

"This is a family that you were determined to rip apart and emotionally torture you bastard," Toni snarled lowly hating the fact that someone could be so nonchalant about killing when it still made her want to throw up on occasion even if it was bad people that were falling by her hands.

_He picked the boy up and flung him away before his father was forced to the ground and stomped on as if he were a bug that the spokesman wanted to squish. His wife looked on and she couldn't stop crying and screaming knowing what was about to come._

"How can anyone find such events to be a source of pleasure?" Thor said furiously looking like he might send a bolt of lightning hurling into the screen any second.

_Finally the spokesman had his fun with the father and told one of the guards, "shoot this dog. You're all incompetent."_

"Good!" the room spoke as one glaring at the spokesman creating a combination of looks that would send any man even if he was the bravest in the world running for his mummy crying like he was a toddler again.

_A gun was held up against his head as the gunman told him to, "turn your head," over and over again as if thinking that the man would actually agree. His wife desperately tried to shield her children's eyes from the scene although there was nobody to protect hers._

"That's what I call a good mother," Steve said admiring the woman's first instinct being that she had to protect her children from seeing anymore atrocities instead of trusting that they would look away and shielding her own eyes. She seemed to know that the innate curiosity of children would defeat them there and they would look and be forever traumatised.

_But suddenly a loud gust of wind could be heard and the group looked up to see a faint figure hurtling through the sky before Toni in the Mark III landed perfectly on one knee on the ground in front of an insurgent. _

"And now Annie will stop me from having to watch too much more of that," Natasha exclaimed, "слава богу."

_As she straightened up that insurgent began firing on her but the bullets deflected harmlessly off the suit and she grabbed a hold of him and flung him up over the nearest building._

"There is no way that he survived that," Clint said with a smirk, "go Toni!"

_She took out three more with perfectly aimed repulsor blasts before turning back to the larger group who had each seized a hostage and was pointing a gun to their head._

"Cowards," Bruce muttered darkly.

_Toni of course couldn't use the long range attack of her repulsors in fear of hitting someone so she lowered her hands and powered down those but she had another trick up her sleeve. Her targeting system quickly identified who of the people in front of her was a hostile and who was just a terrified civilian and then she fired neatly with her missile systems taking down all of the hostiles and leaving the civilians safe._

Clint let out another low whistle at the sight of Toni so ruthlessly taking out the bad guys especially since she had ingeniously managed to deal with the fact that they had human shields by using her amazing targeting system.

_The young boy quickly escaped his mother's grasp again and ran to his father who could now hold onto him as he didn't fear that the dead insurgents would kill him and his son for doing so. The little boy shot Toni a grateful glance as she marched past towards her next target._

"That's sweet," Natasha admitted, "you've got your very first fan Annie."

_As the spokesman tried to hide and call someone – presumably Raza – and inform them that Toni was back and in a far more sophisticated version of her escape vehicle a fist flew through the wall next to him._

"Now that's how you intimidate them," Phil said approvingly, "show them that you're strong enough to bust through a wall with a single punch."

_The hand grabbed a hold of him by the collar and pulled him back through the wall letting go at just the right point so he skidded to a halt at the feet of the civilians. As he tried to regain his bearings Toni blasted off of the ground and told them, "he's all yours!"  
_

"That was a very decent thing to do," Steve told her, "everyone deserved a little revenge in that situation and you made sure they wouldn't get themselves killed going for it."

**A/n: Tada! Epic action Toni and there's more where that came from in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed it y'all!**


	47. No More Jericho

Chapter 47 – No More Jericho

**A/N – I think I've had more nice things said about this story than about anything else that I've done in my entire life and it feels amazing so much love to those who review although I love everyone who reads this :) **

**youwannabekate: I always love it when Toni/y does something that shows that they aren't in it for the style of the thing and they are just getting a job done so I love that section too. Yeah me too and I would probably do more than simply brag :D Have another BAMF Toni scene.**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :)  
**

**babyliss12: Yeah me neither and I'm writing her :D I am really glad you liked it and the wait is over!**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Don't be worried because Toni kicking ass is supposed to make you smile because it's epic. And I would be running scared if someone did that to me and I consider myself fairly brave. **

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I'm glad you liked the badass song :D I will join in the Go Toni chant :)**

**Post U Later: I'm glad you think that Steve would think that in that situation because that is my own opinion on the subject that he only condones. BAMF!Toni is my favourite :D **

**Dragones: I'm so glad that you think it's still getting better even though we're quite far along in the plot now. **

**maipigen: I'm glad that the change didn't affect your feelings about that scene as it makes me feel good about how I'm writing it. The Enchantress does seem to have made a big mistake hasn't she? :D **

**Frostfire613: It is taking me longer than I thought but with all the potential for commentary and personal issues. Up next is IM2 because it just makes sense to do it like that especially since time wise both of the other films at least partially took place after Toni's fights.**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad.**

"Well I wasn't about to endanger the lives of the citizens that I just saved was I," Toni told him although it wasn't in an unkind tone for she knew that he had been complimenting her, "besides in a way I didn't have the right to deal with him because he did far more damage to their lives than he did to mine no matter how much impact he had on me as a person. Those people would have had their entire lives torn apart and in a way that would have been worse than being killed by them."

Clint and Natasha both muttered an agreement to this statement knowing from their choice of career and the things that they had seen whilst on missions that were far worse than dying would be. Death wasn't something that a spy/assassin feared. It was the torture and the loss of people that you had grown close to that you really feared which is why you weren't supposed to make friends in their profession. You weren't even supposed to like someone beyond the amount that you needed to so that you were able to cooperate with them. Well in that aspect both of them had failed; for a start they had gotten way too close to each other in Budapest for the liking of their superiors but it ended up making them a better team so no official complaints were filed against them and they weren't separated. They had made other connections over the years but the one that had infuriated Fury the most was when Natasha appeared to have made a connection with Toni Stark. Who was a force that he was finding impossible to control and use for his every whim because she was so independent by nature. He truly believed that Toni would bring down one of his best Agents and of course was thrilled when Natasha's 'report' seemed to reflect her in a negative light. Which was why Natasha knew that he was to this day baffled by the fact that the pair were so close and got on so well. He didn't understand how Natasha could have written those things about her and the truth of course was that she hadn't. Not that she would ever tell Fury that because she knew that Toni used her hidden personality to get one up on Fury all the time. Of course they might not encounter each other as often now that the Avengers were cutting all ties with SHIELD.

_The Mark III suit cut through the Afghanistan sky with ease as Toni arced away from Gulmira searching for the stash of her weapons that the Ten Rings was coveting. Especially the Jericho missiles they had been given through Obadiah's double dealing._

"I still really want a go," Clint said in awe of how gracefully the suit could move through the hair when it was basically made out of a giant hunk of metal. He knew that it was streamlined and every single piece of it was designed to perfection. But all he could see when he looked at it was something that shouldn't be possible and couldn't be replicated in the exact same way by anyone but Toni. And certainly couldn't have been invented by anyone else because the imitations were only possible because Toni had come up with the idea first.

"I don't really give out my suits anymore," Toni said quietly, "not even for one flight."

Sensing that this was for a reason Clint decided not to push the matter. He had the distinct feeling that it was a trust issue and knew that he didn't know Toni well enough yet that he was able to sense which issues to push on and which to leave alone. Hence the default position had to be to let issues go unless you felt really passionately about the subject. Plus Toni had her guard up even more around him than she did around the others since he had witnessed her at what was possibly the lowest point she had ever let anyone see her at. Although he suspected that even that moment hadn't showed everything Toni had to hide from the world.

_Her target had just identified a batch of Jericho missiles that she had to take out when a projectile collided with the side of the suit and knocked her out of the sky._

The synchronised gasp that came from the room would almost have been comical if the situation hadn't been so serious. Maybe later they'd be able to laugh at these moments of complete synchronicity but a scene like that wasn't to be made light of.

"I didn't really think anything could take that suit out of the sky," Phil said amazed that the suit had gone down after a single hit.

"For a start that was the Mark III and what hit me back then wouldn't take down the later versions of the suit that I almost always fly now. I only use the older versions when the others are a complete wreck and are beyond my abilities to repair with the materials I have available at the time," Toni told them, "but yes precise hits can take down the older ones. Obviously the aim and targeting was good enough to score a direct hit."

_The explosion of dust that resulted from the impact of Toni with the ground was huge displacing a giant cloud that flew up into the air clearly marking her position._

"That makes you a huge target," Steve said concerned as Toni's position was far too obvious when she had only crash landed because of somebody shooting her from the sky.

"Although I'm pretty sure we shouldn't worry," Natasha said with a smirk.

"Why not?" Bruce said obviously having forgotten Toni's reactions to previous events having gotten caught up in the worry that he was feeling for her friend.

"Because a) Toni is sitting right next to you Bruce so she obviously got out of it alive," Natasha explained, "and b) Toni was already pissed off and shooting her out of the sky as she tries to get rid of the Jericho missile for good is not going to improve her mood. They're going down and it's going to be painful for them."

_From the crater caused by the collision Toni's gloved hand emerged as she pushed herself up off the ground. The blank expression of the mask coupled with the burn marks that now covered it somehow showed the rage that Toni was feeling even without a change of expression. _

Steve shuddered a little at the imagery that seemed to have happened completely by accident. He could almost imagine that look on Toni's actual face and it was terrifying. He now knew that he was very lucky that Toni had never actually been 'angry' at him. Mad maybe and annoyed definitely but angry no. Because if he had seen her angry he would have been running away no matter what super powers the serum had given him.

_The thank that had fired the projectile that took her out of the sky attempted another hit but this time Toni could see it coming a long way off and dodged it with ease. Then she fired a missile of her own at the tank and simply began to walk away._

"You didn't even check whether it landed or not," Phil said disapprovingly. One of the first things you needed to learn about a combat situation was that you always needed to make sure that your target was destroyed otherwise they could strike at your back and you would end up dead.

"Wait for it," Toni said simply.

_She only took about one step before the tank went up in a blazing inferno accompanied by a loud boom. _

"It was time delayed," Clint realised understanding why Toni had decided to save time and walk away before the tank had actually blown up due to the direct hit.

"That's the second time in the course of this film that you have just been calm in the face of an explosion," Natasha said shaking her head in exasperation. Only Toni. That was the only thing to say in the face of that realisation. Only Toni!

_As she walked forward bullets started raining down on her as the insurgents on the ground ran over with their guns. Toni could afford not to bother about the bullets hitting her because the suit was simply deflecting them so she slowly lifted herself off the ground and focused once more on finding all the Jericho missiles._

"Why were you going for them specifically?" Bruce queried, "I know they caused your injury but the insurgents had a lot more of your other weapons which you could have eliminated as well."

"Because of what Yinsen said about there being a lot of people in Gulmira who suffered from the same wounds as I did only they weren't as lucky as I was for even if Yinsen had operated on them they wouldn't have had the capacity to build the arc reactor that I did. Therefore eventually the electromagnet would have failed and he would only have prolonged their life for maybe a week more," Toni told him, "I didn't want to subject someone to the pain that I went through when that missile first hit me. And I knew that was always going to be the biggest killer in the hands of terrorists once it got there it needed to be eradicated."

_Ignoring the people who were milling around on the ground Toni landed a direct hit on the three nearest Jericho missiles and the explosion billowed out swallowing up some of the terrorists on the ground which was so much the better for Toni._

"It's good that you took them out at the same time," Natasha said approvingly.

_As this was happening Raza came back from wherever he had been raiding with a platoon of vans and spotted the explosion and the bullet like figure of Toni who was shooting out of it at high speeds. _

"It was very good of you to do that for them," Bruce said with a smile at his best friend once again trying to show her that she was a good person. It was starting to make him sound a bit like a broken record but that was probably the only thing that would get through to Toni. Probably because it would annoy her so much that she might finally think about it properly and actually come to a proper conclusion based on all of the facts.

"The problem is the military is not going to react well to Toni intervening when they probably did not get the approval to go in," Phil said worriedly, "they were using human shields after all."

"Why would the military not be grateful to Lady Toni for saving lives that they could not?" Thor said bewildered, "on Asgard we would commend Lady Toni for being able to do what we could not."

**A/n: Next up is Toni getting shot at by the military. Oh Avengers you are so going to wish for the quiet parts of this movie very soon :) The chapters are becoming mainly commentary and I know that but this is because I do have a sequel to set up here. We will get through all the movies :D**


	48. No Fly Zone

Chapter 48 – No Fly Zone

**A/N – I don't think I will ever tire of getting reviews on this story. And I will be very sad when it's over but of course the sequel will be epic too or at least I hope so :D **

**youwannabekate: I hope that you will enjoy the scene when we get to it :) And it's not weird; call them what you want because you're supposed to have opinions on the story.**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :)  
**

**SparkleNicole: I am really glad that you like it and I hope you like those scenes when they come up :D**

**shadowwolf64: I'm supremely flattered that you think this deserves awards because it really doesn't :D But I like to think it's quite good. I'm glad that you're starting to like Toni and that you look forward to my updates :D**

**Dragones: Your review made me smile so thank you :D Glad you love it **

**babyliss12: Toni and the military is not a good combination. The Avengers are going to need a few extra breaks due to nervous breakdowns and anger trust me :D**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I liked writing that moment for Thor although it originally sprang from oh I haven't written him in here yet :D This chapter he will not be happy with them**

**Post U Later: Indeed some Rhodey is definitely coming up very soon :) **

**ReenReen: It's a funny image isn't it :D Glad you loved it**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Prepare for some angry Avengers and enjoy!**

**ReadPaxJoy: I'm glad that the story is helping you feel a little better because I know how it feels when you're sick :D You're welcome :)  
**

"The military are very touchy when anybody but them sends in someone into a crisis zone and they automatically leap to the thought process of considering them an enemy," Natasha informed him although her tone made it clear that she wouldn't approve of their attitude in this case, "it doesn't matter to them that Toni saved those refugees and took out major cogs in the working system of the Ten Rings. They weren't controlling her actions and seeing as they didn't have the technology on hand to rescue those people without casualties they assumed that nobody else did."

"And," Toni chimed in, "if the military knew what I'd developed and I had gotten official permission to go in there is no way they wouldn't have confiscated it for the good of all the minute I touched down. They'd try and replicate it whilst leaving me in the original suit and then they would have found out that they weren't able to do so they would have taken away my version at gun point and tried to find someone else to pilot it. My entire philosophy at the time was that I would never let my more destructive inventions have the potential to be misused for nefarious reasons. Allowing someone working for the military to use the suit would turn the device I built to be a shield into a sword."

"They'd never succeed in piloting it without your lessons," Clint pointed out.

"But they'd probably have destroyed my suit trying before they would have admitted it and given it back to me," Toni pointed out, "of course I would have made a new one by then but going in low profile with it so they wouldn't notice would have severely limited the people I could have helped with the suit."

Steve frowned at the slight directed at the military. He had after all been a part of it for a time and had wanted to enlist for a long time before that had ever become a reality. He desperately wanted the honour of the military to be intact as it had been – relatively – when he had served. Maybe the men (and women) in charge in this day and age would be able to prove the others wrong. He didn't get his hopes up though for so many things had changed and this movie had only shown him that the world had changed since the 40's in ways other than technological innovation. Much more subtle ways such as their attitudes to certain issues. Maybe back in the 1940's Toni would have been reprimanded for going in against orders but hadn't Steve done the same thing to save his men. Toni would probably have gotten more trouble for it because she was a woman. If he had to choose one thing he liked about the changes since his time was the fact that women were now considered just as capable as men and Peggy had probably become more appreciated as she grew older. Plus all the civil rights movements and things that were crimes in his time that had become legal like same sex relationships.

"_What the hell was that?" a man in military uniform said alarmed as he watched a target that represented the Iron Man suit crossing a radar screen, "Were we cleared to go in there?" Across the bottom of the screen letters unfolded identifying the location as 'Edwards Air Force Base, California.'_

"So we do get to find out how the military reacted," Bruce said not looking forward to what he felt sure he was about to witness. He had no pleasant experiences with the military in his past seeing as most of the people there only wanted one of two things from him. One was for him to allow them to experiment on him and the second type just wanted him to stand there whilst they executed him. It was hard to put his faith in the system that was 'protecting' their country when it couldn't be bothered researching ways to help a citizen who admittedly was a potential danger. But what would alienating him do other than make the Hulk more prone to attacks which they should have been able to predict as he reacted badly to the pressure situations they put him in.

"_No sir," the man monitoring the radar screen told him quickly, "they were using human shields. We never got the green light."_

"And here goes the military freaking out again," Bruce muttered resentfully. Sure they would find it a little worrying that someone had interfered and possibly gotten the hostages killed. That he understood because innocent lives were certainly worth worrying about. But the first thing that they should have done was contact someone in Afghanistan who knew what was going on and could confirm that there were no civilian casualties as a result of the intervention. There had to be at least some of the watching on if they were waiting for a green light because they'd want to be nearby to get in as soon as they were allowed to. But from his experiences they were probably about to make an attack on Toni without investigating all of the facts involved.

"_Put me through to State," ordered the man who was obviously in charge, "They're going to be all over this."_

_Instantly the room buzzed with conversation as everyone handled their own jobs with as much efficiency as they could manage so that an unknown craft wouldn't get too far into a no fly zone. Cries of, "we got a bogey," and, "wasn't air force?" came through as they tried to determine the origin of Toni's suit._

"At least they're not going for the 'ready, fire, aim,' policy," Steve said eager to point out that they were doing something right in their approach to the situation, "they're trying to find out what's happening."

"That could be a valid point," Phil acknowledged, "but the problem is that once they find out that she is not affiliated with anyone that they're calling up they will have no more time for questions and no more time for trying to find out her intentions. It's military policy for foreign bogeys in no fly zones. Especially in places like Afghanistan which at this point are severe war zones. They're not so bad nowadays."

"You're welcome," muttered Toni quietly although she made sure that it was too quiet for anyone to hear clearly. She didn't really like taking all the credit for doing something so huge which had taken effort from other people as well as her. Plus the fact that she wasn't exactly proud of the sheer amount of deaths on her hands that yes had been necessary to save lives and help reduce the amount of fighting that needed to be done in those war torn countries but it still weighed a little on her conscience. At least she could still say that she had never intentionally caused the death of an innocent person although of course over the years she hadn't been able to save those who were innocents in the battles she had fought with or without the Avengers.

"_We got the CIA on the line?" the boss asked urgently._

"_I've got Langley on the line," one soldier responded, "They want to know if it's us."_

"This is not going to end well if every organisation of your world decides to turn against Friend Toni for her good deed," Thor said angrily. The others could tell that this statement was half about how it wouldn't end well for Toni and also half about the fact that it wouldn't end well for anyone who had ordered a strike on Toni because it was in a way a promise that they would come face to face with an angry Thor. Despite his ignorance of many ways Midgardians reacted to things he had gotten the intimidation tactic down as presumably that much hadn't changed between worlds. Nobody wanted to come face to face with an angry Thor and the only one who was perhaps more terrifying was Toni herself because her glare was so cold. But there was no way Toni would stop Thor from getting some satisfaction out of dressing down the men who had tried to shoot her out of the sky but she knew that if she had confessed to Rhodey earlier a lot of the events might have been stopped. But she hadn't trusted him for good reason and she would stick by her decision to this day after what Rhodey did to her.

"_No, it definitely is not us, sir," another man chimed in obviously having searched through the records that they were keeping on dispatches and what they had that could infiltrate the village that easily but had drawn a blank as they didn't have the technology or tech know how in their department to do it._

"If it was the army that did it I think the world would have ended," Toni scoffed, "they've never been that efficient as even Steve has to admit."

"Okay," Steve said wondering if he would have met Toni's glare if he had turned out not to agree with her, "I admit that there is no way that the army would get the technology behind the suit which is basically the only thing other than a bomb that could infiltrate a village that small. But nobody else could either."

"True," Toni said sounding proud of her invention as she almost always did when she was talking about the Iron Man suits. The only time it tended to fade was when she had to talk about some of the things she had done with the suit that while necessary still haunted her. So far around any member of the Avengers this had only happened once to Natasha and once in a group meeting where everyone was sharing something.

"_It wasn't Navy," came another voice and yet another said, "wasn't Marines."_

"_I need answers," the boss said getting exasperated that nobody seemed to be behind it and that from his point of view somebody had just risked the lives of the people living in that village for no apparent reason other than they might not like the way the military was handling the situation, "Can I please get eyes on target?"_

"That's not going to work," Bruce said with a smile knowing just how fast that suit could go seeing as it wasn't carrying anything other than Toni that wasn't an integral part of the suit. It went far too fast for anyone to get an image of it unless Toni was purposefully slowing down which she wouldn't be doing at that moment.

"_Negative, negative," came the answer, "cannot identify."_

"_Get me Colonel Rhodes from weapons development down here now!" the boss shouted calling for the one person that he thought might just know what was going on in the skies over Afghanistan._

"And here comes Rhodey again," Toni deadpanned as Natasha frowned. She wasn't the fondest of James Rhodes even if he had come through for Toni in the end. The only problem was that she knew the same was true of her and she couldn't really protest as much as the others would be able to because she had betrayed Toni's trust too in a way that was almost worse than anything Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes had done.

**A/n: Again I'm still not feeling well so I needed to split this scene :) And I'm so glad that I can get this out for you as short as it is that I'm probably going to stop apologising for short chapters as of now okay because y'all keep telling me not to worry about it after all.**


	49. Military Trouble

Chapter 49 – Military Trouble

**A/N – The good news is that we broke 550 reviews and one reviewer has a chance to be number 600 and choose a oneshot. Still waiting on XxXSilverShadowXxX telling me what they want. I'm setting a time limit so that the oneshot will default to reviewer 501 if I don't get your answer by Sunday's chapter unless I am given a good reason for it.**

**ReadPaxJoy: I'm glad you think that this story has everything :) And I prioritise this above my own homework :D You're welcome and I'm glad you liked it. I'm afraid some scenes have to be sad :( **

**youwannabekate: I just can't bring myself to like Rhodey but I'm keeping him pretty canon so you should still like him. There will be an edit to his character in Iron Man 2 which means that I can be comfortable writing him so I hope you don't mind it.**

**nessa11997: Glad you liked it :) **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked it :D Enjoy the scene**

**ladynarutochan: Thank you for the well wishes :) Glad you liked it**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Coincidentally I am also sitting in a swivel chair laughing at them because it's just a bit oh dear :D Enjoy**

**ReenReen: I'm just unique like that :D And yes I do have a life I just write from about midnight to about 5am when I can't sleep due to my insomnia. My life is actually quite busy I have to fit swimming, dancing, acting, three different singing classes, basketball, debate club, school newspaper & school into my schedule so I'm sometimes surprised I get out any chapters :D And you'll just have to read and see.**

**Post U Later: Well no, she really doesn't because Toni doesn't really trust her that much although she eventually will by the time this series ends. She's probably about equal with Rhodey in this story overall.**

**Maeleana: Thank you**

**FallenQueen2: Hey new reviewer! I am really glad that you like this story and I'm glad that you're looking forward to something from this story. **

"Surely Colonel Rhodes will try other channels and try and make contact before he goes in for the full throttle attack plan," Steve said using Rhodey's full title despite being told when they first met that he should call him either James or Rhodey as Toni had taken to calling him back at MIT. He had been planning on doing so but then Colonel Rhodes had gotten angry with him when Toni had let slip one of the things Steve had said to her on the helicarrier. He still remembered the dressing down the colonel had given him and some of the things that he had said which had really hit Steve where it hurt. Mind you Toni had seemed a little more angry with Colonel Rhodes than she had been with Steve at the time although Steve couldn't understand why that had been the case.

"Well Rhodey does have at least some sense so yes," Toni said knowing that the first thing he had done was probably talk to her about it because he did know her at least a little no matter what the others thought on the matter upon seeing some of his reactions to some of her earlier actions. The problem with that conclusion was that she was a pretty unpredictable person but some things she had never experienced before like the length of time she had been in captivity and of course the installation of the arc reactor (she had never told anyone about being hooked up to a car battery first because she didn't want to see the pity in their eyes when they looked at her. It was bad enough that she got pity from some of the other things that had happened to her that she had to tell Phil, Rhodey or Piper.) Hence he couldn't really predict a typical reaction for Toni in that situation and so he went with what the default for anybody else would be if they had gone through the same thing. The real mistake in his judgement had been going for the reaction of a normal person whereas he should have known to assume the opposite but it wasn't entirely Rhodey's fault. It was Toni's for being so unpredictable in the first place.

Of course Toni's actions were quite predictable if you spent enough time around her where you weren't trying to pressure her into doing something which was why in reality the others were so angry with Toni's so-called friends for their lack of knowledge of the actions Toni would to them obviously do after certain events. That didn't mean that she was incapable of shocking them for they knew that Toni was Toni and that was her thing.

_Up in the sky Toni was oblivious to the discussion that was going on below and JARVIS didn't seem to have informed her that it was a no fly zone. She simply put more power into her repulsors and blasted her way across the sky._

"Why didn't JARVIS tell you that you were flying through a restricted air zone?" Natasha asked. JARVIS seemed to keep Toni informed of everything nowadays and surely things like that would automatically be on the list.

"I told you before JARVIS has a backdoor into all of the security systems of the world but that privilege is too easy to abuse," Toni explained, "even for me so I've forbidden him to relay anything not directly related to me to my systems in case I get too tempted by the knowledge that is there. Obviously before that moment there had never been an occasion where I had to get information on what parts of the sky weren't places you could just fly through. He gives me all of that information now because it became relevant."

"That's probably a good idea," Clint said and upon receiving a glare from Bruce realised that could be interpreted as if he was saying that he believed that Toni would be corrupted if she had all that knowledge, "I'm just saying that while Toni is strong in the face of that much information anyone would be curious. Even me and that's not supposed to be part of my job. I only find out the things that I absolutely need to know."

_As Rhodey walked into the control room the man in charge told him, "we ran an ID check and cross-referenced with all known databases. We have nothing."_

"_Any high altitude surveillance in the region?" Rhodey asked wanting to get a view on it before he made any decisions._

Toni smiled a little. Alright so the suit wouldn't be caught on that surveillance but at least it was a logical leap to make rather than going straight for the guns. It seemed that she had taught him something after all. Well there was a reason that he was her liaison for the military other than the fact that they had met in college. They had lost touch when Toni went underground and she hadn't even known he had gone military so obviously that was out. It was because he actually had some brains and also because he understood that diving right in was not the best solution 99% of the time.

"_We got an AWAC and a Global Hawk in the area," one soldier informed him relaying information from the screen in front of him. _

"_So this thing just appeared out of nowhere?" Rhodey queried clearly wondering how anything could do that, "how come it didn't show up on the radar?"_

"Because I am that good," Toni said with a laugh but nobody laughed with her because they were far too concerned about what could happen if Rhodey admitted that they couldn't get anything on the suit and sent out missiles after her because that is what they were sure to do. That or they would send in planes loaded with an arsenal and they would end up with the same result of Toni being fired on. Of course they had seen that Toni wasn't easily taken out by missiles having been able to get back up almost immediately after colliding with the ground but a plane would be able to land multiple hits at once and that might be enough to take Toni down. Of course it wouldn't kill her. She was sitting right there and they weren't that caught up in the movie that they completely forgot about that fact but still. It wasn't the easiest thing to sit through in the world.

"_Got a minimal radar cross-section, sir," the soldier monitoring the radar station informed him._

"_Is it stealth?" Rhodey asked obviously wondering if this was some sort of secret operation by an organisation he hadn't heard of so that he would be ill advised to shoot it out of the sky without further intel._

"_No, sir, it's tiny," the same man replied puzzled._

"Friend Toni is not that tiny," Thor said confused, "the suit makes her much bigger as well."

"They were speaking relatively Thor," Toni informed him, "you've mainly been exposed to my technology whilst you've been on Midgard. That or SHIELD's but basically the one man jets that SHIELD uses are small for jets which means that the suit is considered miniscule."

"_We think it's an unmanned aerial vehicle," he said going for the obvious conclusion._

"The military aren't being very accurate with their assumptions in this film," Natasha observed.

"To be fair to them everything they're seeing is new," Steve pointed out, "going for the obvious conclusion instead of making up wild and terrifying new situations that would just make an unknown situation worse would not be the rational way to go about it. Go for what you know first and then make new hypotheses."

"I guess we're rubbing off on you Steve," Bruce said with a smile, "you sounded a bit like me and Toni for a minute there."

"_Colonel, what are we dealing with here?" the boss asked seriously giving Rhodey a look as if he was saying that he didn't believe that Rhodey had no idea what was going on._

"Everyone's always suspicious of Rhodey because apparently being friends with me means he has split loyalties because the military and I parted ways," Toni said rolling her eyes, "yet when I was developing weaponry his supervisors were all for it because they wanted someone close to me and Rhodey was the only person I would agree to allow near me. They're such hypocrites and people wonder why I want to punch many of them in the face whenever I see them talking about things as if they're so superior."

_Rhodey considered the situation for a moment and then told him, "Let me make a call."_

"And here comes the inevitable call to Toni," Bruce said knowing that Rhodey had now worked out that something that small moving fast enough that they couldn't get a close view on was probably something that the billionaire had invented. The other man appeared to be many things but he certainly didn't seem to be stupid.

"_Sargent, clear a hole," the boss agreed getting Rhodey patched into the communications network from his mobile as he picked it up. Sure enough the suit was soon shown as the phone network connected to it began to signal an incoming call._

"_Hello?" Toni asked nonchalantly._

"You knew it was Rhodey," Clint said knowingly, "and yet you still answered it as if you didn't know who it was?"

"Well caller ID comes in very handy these days," Toni said rolling her eyes, "But I'm always far too busy to check it and it would have looked suspicious if I knew who it was. Anyway I answer the phone like that anyway when I actually pick up my phone."

Toni was notorious for not picking up her phone when she got absorbed in her work as the Avengers had often found out when unable to get down to her personal labs to drag her into an event Steve had arranged for them to do together they had tried to call her. She either didn't hear it over the blaring music she was always playing in the lab which meant she didn't hear JARVIS either or she got so absorbed in a project that she was deaf to anything that wasn't JARVIS telling her if something could be fabricated or not.

"_Toni?" Rhodey questioned even though that was who he had called and it was her voice on the other end of the line._

"_Who's this?" Toni asked pretending to be back in her lab where she never checked her caller ID._

"_It's Rhodes," Rhodey informed her using his proper surname rather than the nickname she had given him to indicate that the situation was serious and she shouldn't be joking around._

"Well maybe you know each other better than I thought," Natasha said after considering the exchange for a moment, "that conversation sounds like it's really simple but there was about a million lines of subtext exchanged as well."

**A/n: I know I didn't get much further into the scene and I truly intended to get further and I would have except for something triggered something for me and I spent an hour I could have spent writing this crying so I'm sorry for the lack of progression but it will be in next chapter.**


	50. Ready, Fire, Aim

Chapter 50 – Ready, Fire, Aim

**A/N – I actually can't believe that we've made it to Chapter 50 :) I have never written a story this long including ones I haven't published anywhere. I especially can't believe it since I have had a torn ligament in my writing wrist since December and I've written all of these chapters one handed. Little random fact for you there :) **

**youwannabekate: I'm not good at taking time :D I'm a chronic overachiever it just doesn't compute :) I'm glad that you liked it and yeah that thing happened on the 6****th****/7****th**** of December so it has been a while and I guess I feel a little better today.**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :)**

**Booklover2526: Glad you liked the chapter and thank you for what you said even if it doesn't really apply in this case :)**

**ladynarutochan: Thanks for the cuddle :) Have one back ~#cuddles#~ I'm glad you liked it and it totally doesn't have to be constructive /lol**

**babyliss12: I highly doubt that genius is an accurate word but thank you anyway :D Glad that you liked the chapter :D**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: They do because Toni has sort of forgiven him for reasons that will become clear later on :)  
**

**AvengersReviewer: This reply may get long :D Thank you for the compliments on my characterisation as that's the thing that I worry about the most so I'm glad you think it's good. I am really glad that you liked the interpretation of Iron Man and that you understood it would have been OOC to keep that scene the same. And yeah the key word doesn't appear to be intelligence in their minds. I have ideas for those scenes although nothing is absolutely definite yet. Thank you for the recommendation and I will definitely check it out because I am literally transcribing straight from the movies at the moment :D I'm keeping careful note of everything I have planned for the sequel so I'll hopefully be able to include everything.**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad :)**

**Post U Later: She does sort of but not completely. At least that's the way I've always been attempting to write the character. And yes she does :)  
**

**moonyrocks13: I'm glad you like this story :)  
**

"He has known me since I was fifteen," Toni pointed out, "and during that time he wasn't doing his best to avoid me at all times like everyone that I knew before that was. So yes we can say a lot more silently than we would be able to say out loud in that situation seeing as if he implicated me in any way then the military would have sent people to take me down to my Malibu house and they would have completely ruined all of my furniture."

"You care more about your furniture than about being shot or being arrested," Bruce said sceptically not quite able to understand how anyone – even Toni – could think about their furniture when their life was more important.

"The furniture in that house cost a lot of money," Toni said defensively, "besides I would still have been in the suit and yes I would have lost a great house but I would have gotten out of the situation alive. And eventually my influence would have convinced the army to see my motivations for what they were. Saving the people that the army couldn't and getting rid of the weapons that were allowing them to hurt those same people. I have plenty of houses to hide in if I ever need to avoid my two main ones."

"That plan is alarmingly well laid out," Phil said worriedly.

"I've been worried about how the military will react to some of the things I do ever since I parted ways with them and basically said they were doing a bad job on national television," Toni admitted, "I have to have at least twelve back-up plans for something that serious. That was number 1 to be enacted if I've just come back to an ambush."

Steve paled a little on hearing that Toni had a good reason to be afraid of military intervention because of her actions as Iron Man. That wasn't something that he could condone the army doing without getting all the facts. Maybe blind trust when they were concerned wasn't working in his favour once more. It had failed him with Fury and SHIELD as all the time they had been preaching about stopping the war Loki wanted to bring on the world they had been plotting on activating Stage 2 and destroying alien civilizations that hadn't done anything to them as a deterrent. Okay so that was pure speculation but the more of these films that Steve saw and the more he found out about SHIELD's actions the more he believed that while Fury didn't condone attacks on innocent civilians he wouldn't have the same qualms about destroying foreign creatures who could 'easily become a threat.' After all wasn't that what the military wanted to do to the Hulk.

"_Sorry, hello?" Toni said probably genuinely not able to hear Rhodey that time because the wind around her was beginning to make an awful racket as she cut through it at high speed._

"You must have cut out that noise somehow because you were travelling just as fast in our battle against Loki and I didn't hear any wind noise when we were watching the movie portraying that," Clint realised.

"Kind of," Toni told him, "I managed to exclude more of the background noise and if the wind isn't moving too quickly then yes I don't hear anything but if the wind is blowing fiercely already and then I add to it because of the speed of the suit then it can still sometimes interfere with my comms. Thankfully it would pretty much have to be gale force at this stage for me to lose contact and I shouldn't fly in gale force even with the suit because it's size is a disadvantage there because no matter how much power I give the suit, nature is always going to have more."

"_I said it's Rhodes," Rhodey repeated._

"_Speak up, please," Toni said politely knowing that if he didn't she was going to miss a lot of what he was about to say and if she got a reaction wrong then Rhodey might give up on her or end up giving the order to capture her because his first loyalty was to the military._

"I think that's one of the politest things I've ever heard you say," Natasha quipped and technically it was true. Toni wasn't exactly rude unless she had taken against you. It was more like she wasn't afraid to say things that were true but others would never admit to thinking. She wasn't afraid of people's reactions because everybody vilified her and hero worshipped her on and off and she was used to the mood swings of the general public. She didn't think she'd ever seen a tabloid about Toni that was even a quarter of the way to being accurate and that included the 'nice' ones purely because they didn't even begin to sum up all the good that Toni had done for the world. And none of them mentioned the good that Toni had done by giving up on making weapons because at the time they had vilified her for it and by the time she was making arc reactors it was old news and they would rather report on the work she was doing in clean energy or how she had stabilised the war zone with the Iron Man suit. In between the times in the same tabloids when Toni was irresponsible for not handing over said suit to the military so it could be replicated and used to kill more people. And some of them would probably have been completely innocent and just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yet the soldiers who made the shots would have been considered heroes as Toni was victimised in the press for not tagging along and helping.

"_What in the hell is that noise?" Rhodey inquired puzzled._

"That's another reason that stopping the wind from interfering with your communications was indeed an excellent idea for people get suspicious of your movements," Thor stated which Toni thought was a rather lengthy way of saying that it was a good idea that she stopped interference with her calls when people not in the know called. She really needed to have a conversation with Thor about slang. Or she could just get one of the others to do it as she wasn't sure she would have enough time to commit to a task like that. Well time that wasn't when Thor would be in bed sleeping anyway as most of her free time where she worked on her own innovations was in the early hours of the morning.

"_Oh, yeah," Toni said smoothly, "I'm driving with the top down."_

Here Thor noticed a startling similarity to his brother again because that lie had just rolled off of Toni's tongue and she didn't even appear to have had to think about her reply before she said it. Loki would often do similar things to get the brothers out of trouble with Odin and Frigga when they were younger and then of course he eventually started doing it to cover up his many crimes.

"_Yeah, well, I need your help right now," Rhodey told her. _

"_It's funny how that works, huh?" Toni said letting all the resentment that she had felt over Rhodey snubbing her because of 'mental health issues' leak through into her voice so he would know that she was still very angry with him about it._

"He does have a lot of guts to ask for your help with anything after flat out refusing to help you," Phil said directing a look of disapproval at the frozen image of Rhodey on the screen. He would be sure to give it in person to the man himself when they next saw him. Of course Phil had not been happy when he found out about Rhodey's theft of the Iron Man Mark II suit and he hadn't been able to glare at Rhodey for that either having been indisposed during the times when the other Avengers would have met with him.

"_Yeah," Rhodey said ignoring her tone as if not wanting to admit that he messed up, "Speaking of funny, we've got a weapons depot that was just blown up a few clicks from where you were being held captive."_

"Should be grateful," Clint muttered even though he understood the military's motivations. Didn't mean that he necessarily had to agree with everything they did and right now he certainly did not agree with them. Yes they had to determine who did it but they were done a favour and they should be looking for the person who had saved them a whole lot of trouble.

"_Well, that's a hot spot," Toni said simply stating the truth. It was useful that when she would eventually have to lie about what was going on in Afghanistan that she had cold hard fact to back up her tales._

Thor once again recognised a tactic of Loki's and to be perfectly honest it was beginning to make him uncomfortable. Not because that was a detriment to Toni's personality because if Loki had chosen the right path he could have done great things with his talent and Toni appeared to have chosen a different fork at a similar point in her life. Instead of taking out any bitterness on ordinary people and trying to kill them she had devoted her life to saving them. What scared him was that if anyone really truly hurt Toni and destroyed what she had then she could veer away from them and it would be all their fault. So Thor vowed to himself that he would do anything he could to protect Toni because he would be damned to Hel before he let Loki's fate be the fate of another person that he considered a sibling to him.

"_Sounds like someone stepped in and did your job for you, huh?" Toni said attempting to point out that somebody had stepped in to help and not to harm in hopes of warding off any attacks on the suit which was already slightly damaged from the hits it had taken already._

"Good strategy," Steve complimented knowing that preventing an attack on you was much better than ending up having to avoid one.

"_Why do you sound out of breath, Toni?" Rhodey queried beginning to catch on that something wasn't quite right about Toni's story but her reply was as smooth as ever, "I just got back from jogging in the canyon and I'm driving back to the mansion. Decided that jogging there and back as well wasn't a good idea after being injured so recently as I might end up doing myself further injury."_

"That was a good story," Natasha said with a smile. Toni always could spin a tale and it was something that Natasha really admired about her because it meant that Toni would have made a good spy. Not that Natasha would wish her life on Toni because she had already been through enough. More than even Natasha had ever thought and her mind had conjured up some pretty twisted things that could have happened. At least the worst one hadn't come true.

_Rhodey seemed to believe Toni's story but he double checked, "you sure you don't have any tech in that area I should know about?"_

"_Nope," Toni said simply knowing that if she said yes and got Rhodey to definitely call of a strike then he would definitely get her into a lot of trouble with the military._

"_Bogey spotted!" another soldier shouted and instantly another was on the radio to their high altitude surveillance planes, "Whiplash, come in hot."_

Everyone in the room tensed up when they heard that the military had managed to get a sufficient view on Toni that they were confident of her position. This was probably not going to end well for any party involved because Toni was never going to get taken down without going down fighting.

"_Okay, good," Rhodey deadpanned hoping that if Toni was lying this would shock her enough that she would lose her silver tongue, "cause I'm staring at one right now, and it's about to be blown to kingdom come."_

The room exploded with insults directed at the military. Although maybe exploded wasn't the right term for most of the insults were whispered darkly or said so lowly that you could almost imagine that they weren't being said at all. It wasn't hard to imagine that the soldiers who were behind the strike would sense the malevolent thoughts that were being directed their way and were shivering as if someone had walked over their grave. The one comment that echoed above all the others was one from Natasha, "so much for this movie having no more 'ready, fire, aim!'"

**A/n – Still can't believe that I just finished writing Chapter 50 of this story. Hope you all enjoy it and the chase had better conclude next chapter or I will be angry with myself :D And it's been less than 90 days since Chapter 1 so I now have a doc manager window filled with updates for this story /lol**


	51. Under Fire

Chapter 51 – Under Fire

**A/N – Thank you all for being understanding about issues that result in short chapters :) The day I typed the longest chapter in this story I really thought my one working wrist was going to break :D **

**moonyrocks13: Iron Man is probably my second favourite superhero movie :) And Tony is my favourite Avenger period although some of the others come close. I'm glad you think she's well written. The word awesome is awesome**

**Ganondorf-Lover: Thank you! I'm glad you like my portrayal of the friendship because it truth parts of it make me uncomfortable so I was wondering if I would get it right. Had to add a scene to IM2 and change things up a little bit to make me more comfortable with Rhodey's character. Thank you, it's been 5 months so here's hoping.**

**nessa11997: You're welcome**

**babyliss12: Still totally not a genius and I am very glad that you liked it.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked it and it should definitely be in this chapter :)**

**ReenReen: I'm not intentionally being a tease I'm just exhausted and typing with one hand whilst posting them and trying to give you one per day.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I accept your cheers with thanks :D The military in the Marvel-verse do tend to be secondary bad guys :) I'm a big supporter for people who stick their neck out to save innocents in real life even if I'm very anti-war.**

**Post U Later: Glad you liked it. It always bothered me that Tony who is normally such a great liar faltered there and couldn't think of a believable excuse.**

**Izzy: Aww thank you :) That's nice to hear :D Glad you can still read through the story in one sitting at this point :)**

**purple-konan: I'm sorry Iron Man is getting a little long winded and yes Iron Man 2 is up next followed by Thor**

"Technically the only one pictured in these events who promised not to use the policy of 'ready, fire, aim,' was me," Toni pointed out even though she was reluctant to defend the military, "although it's not a good policy for anybody to follow really. Especially since it was one of my father's. Generally speaking doing the opposite of everything that he ever told me to do that wasn't just common sense is the way forward."

Steve wasn't sure if that was Toni exaggerating or not because it sounded like something that couldn't possibly be true. How could everything that a genius of a man said be something that you wouldn't want to put into action at any cost? The man Steve had known had been giving him good advice almost every time that he saw him and yes he freely admitted that Howard could have changed over the time that he had spent in the ice but he didn't think it could be that drastic. Unless something significant had happened to Howard over that time and the only major event that he could think of in Howard's life at that point would either have been something to do with Peggy or it was to do with him going under the ice. Obviously he had still been on good terms with Peggy when Toni was born seeing as Toni obviously remembered her so it wasn't that and he didn't see why him being under the ice would have affected Howard's personality. Mind you Toni had said that her father's disinterest in her was partially because of him which he couldn't help but feel guilty about.

_The two jets that were in the area suddenly appeared in Toni's slipstream although they weren't currently displaying guns which was a good thing. "That's my exit," Toni told Rhodey ending the phone call as she swerved to the left trying to keep away from the jets._

"Even if there are no guns get away," Clint said approvingly, "especially since they are obviously military planes and as such are probably packed with as many top of the range weapons as they could get once the Stark Industries weapons were withdrawn."

"I couldn't entirely withdraw them," Toni pointed out, "or the army would have lost most of their weapons supplies and that wouldn't have been gone no matter how much I might have wished I could go down that route. It would just have resulted in the deaths of more young Americans who were saved by me allowing the military to use my weapons until they found a suitable replacement contractor. It was only the Jericho missiles that I withdrew from production and the military only had the ones that Obie had managed to sell to them whilst I was in captivity after its demonstration. They couldn't be released to the army until soldiers witnessed the effects of the weapons."

"That was very good of you," Bruce admitted although he too wished that a complete withdrawal of all Stark weaponry from the military had been possible at the time. In some ways Toni's mind was too dangerous for the world they currently lived in. It was bad enough that she was a futurist but she was also a genius and that meant a whole lot of inventions came into being hundreds of years earlier than should ever have been possible and unfortunately some of those were weapons. Although her being a futurist had saved their lives on many different occasions so he probably shouldn't complain about it as the benefits outweighed the problems by a hundred times.

_The jets turned to follow her but her smaller size meant that Toni managed to gain some distance between her and the jets by making the sharp turn. It would have been more effective had the jets been larger but it gained her something at least. "Ballroom, this is Whiplash One," one pilot radioed in, "I've got the bogey in my sights."_

"Not good," Natasha muttered quietly wondering whether she would actually be able to watch this scene all the way through or whether she would end up burrowing her face in her hands as she would no doubt have to do at some point. No doubt around the time of the incident at Stark Industries as she finally found out all of the details about that night. She really did not want to know what had happened in a way because she didn't know if she could take any more of Toni being hurt and betrayed.

"_Whiplash one, what is it?" Rhodey said quickly wanting to get a positive ID on the bogey before he jumped straight in for the blow it up plan. _

"Thank god," Toni said, "I kind of thought at the time that Rhodey was in on the whole just blow it out of the sky without getting a good look at it plan. Of course it's not going to work because the suit is too small and their view screens are not high tech enough. The quinjets could do it and so could the jet that the X-men have because I built that as well but they have superior view screens to anything the military have or anything that is on the market simply because either they are used by people who need much more data than ordinary pilots or they are of course used by air force pilots and while I admire what they do I don't see the need to give them better facilities to get more innocent people caught up in blasts from their weaponry."

"_I've got no idea," the pilot admitted clearly not able to make neither head nor tail of the image that he was getting of the suit. _

"_You have radio contact?" the major asked following Rhodey's lead and making sure that they weren't shooting someone who would be of better use being brought into custody and questioned._

"I don't think they were interested in what you did for them at that stage," Natasha sighed, "they just wanted to find out who was behind it so that they could interrogate them viciously. I should know I sometimes have to do interrogations like that for SHIELD… did have to do them for SHIELD." Natasha still hadn't quite managed to adjust to referring to SHIELD as a part of her past rather than as something that was always present in her life. She had no doubts that Clint and Phil would each have a few slip ups as well because it was a drastic change for all three of them even if it was definitely for the better.

"_Non responsive, sir," the pilot informed him._

"_Then you are clear to engage," the major told him apparently sealing the fate of the bogey pelting through the skies of Afghanistan._

"Why did you not answer your comm unit and tell them that all you did was offer assistance Friend Toni?" Thor inquired wondering why Lady Toni would risk being blown up by a barrage of missiles that the suit couldn't cope with instead of admitting to being inside the suit.

"I've mentioned most of the reasons separately over the course of this scene but the main one is still that if I did they would demand that I hand it over," Toni explained briefly not wanting to reiterate everything she had said about the military recently.

"_Hit it," Toni told JARVIS as a flashing warning came up on the screen informing her that missiles were going to impact her if she didn't do some pretty fancy flying very soon. So she put a lot of power into the thrusters and sped through the sky getting faster and faster by the minute._

"_The bogey just went supersonic," the shocked pilot relayed, "I got a lock!"_

"Wait," Clint said his own shocked tone mirroring that of the pilot, "you are actually able to obtain supersonic speed that fast in the suit. I mean I had no doubts that you had made it possible because you always have a million back up plans but the time it took you was to use the scientific term negligible."

"I anticipated the need for getting away from explosions at high speed in which case I wouldn't have the time it normally takes supersonic flight to become possible so I shortened it a bit to give me time to get far away from something before it exploded," Toni said, "necessity and all that."

_That pilot despite his shock managed to release a missile which sped after Toni gaining ground because it was less heavy than the suit with the added weight of Toni who while quite light was not that light. As the missile drew ever closer JARVIS deadpanned, "Inbound missile," to which Toni ordered, "flares."_

"That's a very good plan if it does what I think it will," Bruce commented.

_The flares spiralled out from an attachment to the suit and collided with the missile causing it to explode to early and causing her to be propelled forward by the explosion letting out a shout from the pure force that was impacting the suit. "Wait a second," the pilot said realising what had happened, "Bogey deployed flares!"_

"Someone in the military with a bit of intelligence and some reasoning skills," Clint commented deadly serious, "now that's exceedingly rare these days so kudos to him but now can he use it for something that will actually help people rather than shooting at Toni please."

_The repulsors on the suit stuttered as they tried to recover from the blast which meant that for a while Toni was in a mildly controlled fall towards Earth as she attempted to steady herself which had to be difficult whilst spiralling in mid-air._

"I believe that experience would make me throw up," Phil said looking sick just thinking about what it would be like, "it does not look at all pleasant and it also looks frightening for the repulsors are really taking their time kicking in which is not good for my nerves."

_Eventually the kicked back in and Toni arced upwards regaining control but this had allowed the jets to gain significant ground on her which was not what she wanted at all. She was darting around so much however that they couldn't get a positive lock on her which was a good thing. One of the pilots attempted to use the machine gun to take her down instead upon realising that the bombs weren't going to work._

"Machine gun I am actually more comfortable with because we have already seen that the suit repels bullets with ease," Natasha said relieved, "and I know that the cat suit Toni wears underneath is bulletproof too or at least it was when I met her."

Toni received several looks of concern upon hearing that in the time frame nobody knew if the cat suit offered extra protection or not but Toni reassured them by saying, "believe me the first designs of the cat suit definitely included the fact that they had to be bulletproof as well as flexible and fairly conductive."

_Toni did do her best to avoid the bullets although inevitably some caught her on the back sending bits of the suit flying through the air but Toni managed to get out a strained, "deploy flaps," and the moment her order was followed by JARVIS she went flying backwards exactly the opposite way from what the pilots were expecting._

"And that is strategically the best way to go about that situation at that stage," Clint said once again happy that Toni was doing well in dealing with a situation that she had not had the ability to plan ahead for. The fact that she could think through anything in seconds was probably an asset in the situation but still.

"_Holy!" one of the pilots exclaimed as back at base it was shown that the suit had vanished from their radar screens completely. "That thing just jumped off the radar, sir," one of the soldiers confirmed._

"That's impressive," Steve said wondering if he would be able to work out how she did it before it was shown. Military moves were kind of his thing even if he didn't quite understand radar as fully as some others did. Obviously she wasn't flying along behind them as she would still have shown up on a scan.

"_The sat visual has been lost," another added._

"_No way that's a UAV," one of the pilots said._

"And finally they cotton on to the fact that some of those manoeuvres are far too complicated for a UAV to pull off," Natasha said, "it was fairly obvious from the way that the missiles were evaded at the last second. Okay so JARVIS could have made that decision for a person so a computer technically could have done it but not any of the computers that the military had knowledge of at the time."

"They don't know about JARVIS know either," Toni tacked on.

"_What is it?" the Major asked exasperated tired of this endless chase against an intelligent opponent._

"_I can't see anything," a pilot said as he looked around for any indication as to where the bogey had disappeared off to. Even with a person inside it the immediate disappearance should have been impossible._

"_Whatever it was, it just bought the farm," the other pilot added._

"_I think bogey's been handled, sir," the other tacked on as Rhodey shook his head not believing that the tech which had evaded their missiles had been taken down by a little machine gun fire._

"Playing dead is always a good strategy in warfare," Thor commented thrilled that for once he knew something about the subject on the screen because the basic underlying concepts of fighting were the same across the Nine Realms.

_Suddenly Rhodey's phone began to ring blaring out an unpleasant default ringtone that had probably come with the phone and the caller ID read Toni Stark. _

Bruce would never tell Toni but he was thankful that she had gone for help from another person even if they had trust issues. As far as he knew Rhodey didn't want Toni dead so while he might get angry at her he would at least try and stop the attack on her.

_He picked it up with a sigh and a, "hello?"_

"_Hi, Rhodey, it's me," Toni said in a very strained voice obviously the fighting was taking a lot out of her._

"You're using double meanings again," Phil observed, "I'm not sure if Colonel Rhodes will get it this time though."

"_It's who?" Rhodey said feigning ignorance._

"_I'm sorry, it is me," Toni clarified, "you asked. What you were asking about is me."_

"Cryptic and yet truthful," Natasha said with a smile, "just about sums you up doesn't it Annie?"

"The same applies to you Tasha," Toni pointed out silencing any further comments that might have come from the super spy.

"_No, see, this isn't a game," Rhodey said anger leaking into his voice obviously thinking she meant it was her tech in the sky, "You do not send civilian equipment into my active war zone. You understand that?"_

"That would have been a bad idea if that was actually what you had done," Steve said tagging on the second part as quickly as possible as Toni looked like she might have been about to direct a glare his way for the comment.

_The shot cut to show Toni wincing inside her suit and clarifying further as quickly as she could, "This is not a piece of equipment. I'm in it. It's me!"_

"That must have been a shock," Phil commented wondering how he would have felt if he had been told that Toni was piloting the Iron Man suit like that. To be honest he didn't know how much help Rhodey was going to be after that revelation.

"_Rhodey, you got anything for me?" the Major asked quickly knowing from his side of the conversation that he had a better idea of what was going on now._

"I thought it was only you who called the Colonel Rhodey Toni," Steve said confused.

"It was only me originally but it kind of caught on and he does tell people just to call him that nowadays," Toni told him.

_Rhodey lowered the phone from his ear very slowly as if not lowering the phone quickly would delay the explanation he would have to come up with. Major Allen's next move was to radio the jets, "Mark your position and return to base."_

"Thank god," Bruce sighed wanting this to be over as soon as possible.

"_Roger that, Ballroom," the first pilot responded as the second tilted his plane to the side and Toni was revealed clinging on to the bottom._

"Oldest trick in the book," Clint said his lip quirking up at the corner into a half smile that probably would have been a full blown laugh if the situation they were being shown wasn't so serious.

_The first pilot spotted it and exclaimed, "on your belly! It looks like a man!"_

"And here comes the beginning of the misnomer," Toni said still rather annoyed that without even hearing her speak through the voice changer that made her sound male they had automatically assumed that she was a guy because she was in a piece of tech.

"_Shake him off! Roll! Roll!" was the next instruction given and the pilot with Toni clinging onto his plane complied spinning the plane around as Toni struggled to keep her grip on the body of the plane. It was hopeless though and she eventually had to let go the momentum from the spin sending her flying straight back through the wing of the other plane._

"дерьмо," Natasha exclaimed, "they're really going to be out for your blood after that and I don't think Rhodey can stop them anymore."

**A/n: This is later than usual but I was determined to get to this point because I like leaving fake cliffhangers. Longer chapter to so win :) Next up Obie is a traitor plus the end of this scene tagged on the beginning :D **


	52. Traitor

Chapter 52 – Traitor

**A/N – Hey y'all! We're getting a lot closer to the scenes that everyone has been looking forward to now which means I am finally nearing the end of this movie. No idea when this is going to get out right now because I have heaps of homework for tomorrow that I totally haven't done yet. **

**youwannabekate: I'm looking forward to writing that part because I've really been looking forward to writing how Toni feels about them all being angry on her behalf. I love me dramatic irony and pseudo cliffhangers because I can't exactly put real ones in yet :)**

**exileena: Pushing on through is what I always try to do :) Yeah I have a feeling a lot of people would be worried if I didn't manage a chapter a day but I'm just like sometimes I get busy. You're welcome and I'm glad you like it.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Enjoy :) Obie is going to be glad to be dead.**

**babyliss12: I'm going to go with 15% because I'm worth it so gimme :D Jk**

**Booklover2526: Yes we are finally getting closer to the end of IM and yes up next is IM2 purely because according to the time frame it takes place before Thor does. **

**Amara Calla: Hello again! :) And I'm glad you like that I do that because I've read many stories in this style because I love them but I do tire easily of the ones that just flat out ignore the fact that not everything in the movies is about dialogue. I was always going to be a little awkward but you're thinking a little too deeply although you have a good grasp on the possibilities which will be addressed. **

**ReenReen: Hope you enjoy the chapter :)**

**LianaDare8: I'm really glad that you're enjoying it and I hope you like this chapter as well.**

**Post U Later: Yeah me too especially at high speed. Poor Toni :( And whilst I'm not a big Rhodey fan his reactions are hilarious most of the time :D **

**Harm Marie: I'm glad :)**

**nessa**

Steve too had realised that the moment Toni caused significant damage to a military plane that she was in a lot more trouble than she had been up to that point even with Rhodey converted over to her side. As far as most members of the military were concerned if an attack was made on a military vehicle and there was no absolute proof that it was an accident then the life of the person that did it wasn't as important anymore although they would still like to keep them alive to interrogate them. Obviously Toni hadn't been imprisoned or killed but still she really needed to stop getting herself into such tricky situations with people who had the authority to shoot her if she messed with them in a combat situation.

_Smoke billowed from the remains of what had once been a wing and it began to blaze with fire turning the smoke an even darker black. "I'm hit, I'm hit," the pilot exclaimed over his radio._

"And they obviously didn't notice that you had no control over your actions," Clint sighed knowing exactly what had gotten the others so worried, "so you don't even have a witness to back up a story you would use to explain your presence there without bringing the revenge factor into it."

"You're forgetting that they obviously didn't imprison me for war crimes or kill me because I am sitting right next to you," Toni told him, "besides do you really think Fury wouldn't have searched through all of his military connections and found out from the horse's mouth if I had been."

"Midgard has talking horses as well!" Thor exclaimed thrilled to discover what was apparently another similarity between his world and the one that he now lived on almost full time.

"It's just an expression Thor," Natasha told him and his face feel briefly but he was soon back in his usual cheerful spirits so she figured that it hadn't done too much damage. Thor had proved on several occasions that when it came to emotions he was an open book no matter how many things Natasha and Clint tried to teach him about not showing everything on his face. But on the other hand it did make deciphering whether he was upset about something as easy as Toni making a high tech mobile phone.

"_It's confirmed. He has been hit," one of the soldiers relayed as Rhodey looked on looking as if he had been struck dumb by the news._

"And now Rhodey is wondering what you're doing as well," Bruce said exasperated. Nothing was going Toni's way as usual it seemed.

_The plane spun through the air as his radio blared with the voice of the pilot of the other plane shouting, "punch out, punch out," the pilot who was obviously terrified grappled with the ejection lever for a minute before he managed to pull it and his seat flew from the cockpit just in time as the plane became a ball of fire. _

"He got very lucky there," Steve said relieved. The man was only following orders and so he didn't deserve to die for entering a situation totally blind and trying the make the best of it.

"He got very scared," Toni muttered. She was just glad that she had been able to save him in the end because it had partially been her fault for picking that as a hiding place even though she knew anything else would have been picked up on radar.

_However the seat didn't slow down and just continued hurtling down towards the ground at a rapid pace. "Whiplash One down," came the exclamation as the target that represented the pilot plummeted across the screen._

"Maybe I spoke too soon," Steve admitted paling slightly at the idea of what could happen to a man who was falling from that high up. Dying quickly was the best thing that could come from that really especially at the speed that the man was going. Where was his parachute?

"_Whiplash Two, do you see a chute?" Major Allen asked concerned about the speed that Whiplash One was plummeting to the ground at._

"_Negative!" Whiplash Two replied, "No chute, no chute!"_

_Whiplash One was continuing to groan loudly into his microphone as he fell which was unfortunately still transmitting to the base where they were hearing every moment of his terror. He was still pulling frantically at the chute shouting, "my chute's jammed."_

"That is a really really bad time for parachute malfunction," Clint said pointing out the obvious fact, "I know chutes fail sometimes but not usually ones fitted as an emergency system when there is no back up chute for you to use if things go doubly wrong. They were usually checked, double checked and all the way up to quintuple checked before they were put on the plane and safety checks were done again on all equipment before take-off. How had a parachute malfunction ended up happening at that precise moment? That was a serious piece of bad luck.

_The sand of the desert below was becoming ever clearer as the trail from Toni's suit arced through the air towards the seat as Toni swooped down to intervene. "Sir, I've got a visual on the bogey," Whiplash Two said spotting Toni's movements._

"So now you're going down to help and suddenly you're more of a threat than before," Bruce said outraged.

"To be perfectly fair and see both sides of the story nobody other than Toni and possibly Rhodey actually knew that her intention was to help him," Steve said trying not to get Bruce any madder than he already was, "all they would see was a hostile target swooping down on someone who was already about to die and seeing it as some sort of game. They'll change their minds when she actually helps."

"Which is very generous of her considering that he was just trying to kill her a minute ago," Bruce mumbled proud of Toni for doing the right thing and saving him but still upset that she had to risk her own life to save someone who wasn't worth half of her.

"_Whiplash Two, reengage," Major Allen told him clearly annoyed that one of his men was dying 'because of the bogey,' "If you get a clear shot, you take it."_

Steve smiled a little at being proved at least partially right but he wasn't able to maintain it for long because it wasn't just the pilot who was at risk here. Toni was in just as much danger even if he knew that she had walked out of there okay. She could still have crashed or something and the suit just hadn't been badly damaged enough to prevent her escape.

_Whiplash Two swerved to the side and began to come around to a place that he would get the clearest shot as Rhodey attempted to reason with the Major on Toni's behalf, "Major, we don't even know what we're shooting at. Call off the Raptors."_

"At least Rhodey came through," Toni pointed out trying to ease the tension in the room. She was glad that she had only added the 'this time' in her head because it did seem to make the others – aside from Natasha and Phil – relax a little because they were reassured that Rhodey was making up for his past mistake.

"_That thing just took out an F-22 inside a legal no fly zone," the Major said angry at the suggestion, "Whiplash Two, if you have a clear shot, take it!"_

Of course this statement resulted in everyone in the room minus Toni tensing up again which basically made Toni's previous efforts worth nothing in the long run. But at least she had tried and she would try again until something settled them down permanently. Or at least until Obie was revealed as a traitor because she couldn't guarantee that even her powers of persuasion combined with all the skill of the spies in the room could talk them into calming down after that news came out.

"_You've been reengaged," JARVIS informed Toni obviously now sufficiently linked in to the military to give her information as it happened rather than on an immediate danger basis, "Execute evasive manoeuver."_

"Please do," Natasha said wondering if Toni would have the time to avoid the missiles and still save the man who was falling. To be perfectly honest if saving the life of the pilot endangered Toni unnecessarily then she no longer cared that his fate would have been a gruesome one. He shouldn't have let her only female friend got hurt. Logically she knew that nobody could stop Toni when she got it into her head that she was going to do something but that didn't stop her wishing that somebody could. And her heart wasn't listening to the logic anyway.

"_Keep going!" Toni shouted determined that she was going to save the life of the man she had accidentally endangered through her momentary loss of control. It didn't take her very much longer to reach the chair and grab a hold of the parachute deployment handle. The strength of the suit was too much of the metal and the handle splintered like wood deploying the parachute._

'Thank you,' Steve mouthed to Toni as the others managed a smile at her for doing a good thing whilst in considerable danger herself. Although Natasha's view that she should have saved herself first and the pilot later was a common thought in the room at that moment in time.

_Toni sped away as Whiplash One relayed the words, "good chute! Good chute!" clearly very relieved although he didn't relay that Toni had done it. The base erupted into cheers at the news glad that he would be safe._

"The least he could have done in thanks was tell them that the 'bogey' just saved his life and therefore they should probably stop shooting at it," Phil said displeased that someone could be so ungrateful for their life being saved.

_The remaining jet seemed to decide to leave Toni alone having seen what triggered the chute and Toni performed a few loops mid-air as Rhodey slid his phone back up to his ear to talk to Toni, "Toni, you still here?"_

"_Hey, thanks," Toni said gratefully._

"Oh so you can be polite," Bruce joked relieved that particular crisis was finally over. It seemed as if the scene had lasted for a lifetime with all that had happened in one little air battle.

"_Oh, my god, you crazy son of a bitch," Rhodey breathed out relieved although he also sounded amazed by the feat that Toni had just pulled off, "you owe me a plane. You know that, right?"_

"He saved you a pilot," Natasha said, "I think you're even."

_Toni chuckled a little before informing him, "yeah, well, technically, he hit me. Now are you going to come by and see what I'm working on?"_

"_No, no, no, no, no, no," Rhodey insisted, "the less I know, the better. Now what am I supposed to tell the press?"_

"That was a sensible decision," Steve acknowledged, "means he can't even indirectly reveal your secrets to the military and that he can't lose his job if they find out he knew how the air collision went down from both sides."

"_Training exercise," Toni quipped, "isn't that the usual BS?"_

"_It's not that simple," Rhodey informed her._

Natasha suddenly remembered seeing a report about this incident on the news and chuckled a little when this statement was given. Not that simple. Well, then how did it work out just fine when you used that excuse Rhodey?

_The next shot showed Rhodey giving a statement to the press the first lines being, "An unfortunate training exercise involving an F-22 Raptor occurred yesterday. I am pleased to report that the pilot was not injured," the scene changed to show Obie watching the press statement on the news, "As for the unexpected turn of events on the ground in Gulmira, it is still unclear who or what intervened, but I can assure you that the United States government was not involved."_

The others now realising what Natasha had been chuckling about joined her in her laughter finding it funny that despite dismissing it Rhodey had gone with Toni's solution to the problem anyway. Toni smiled a little but couldn't help but think that the merriment was not going to last.

"_Hey," Toni's voice echoed as Piper made his way down the stairs towards the lab staring at the glass Toni had destroyed earlier in complete bewilderment._

"_It is a tight fit, ma'am," JARVIS informed her and as she continued to groan about her movements he continued, "ma'am the more you struggle, the more this is going to hurt."_

"Oh I know what's happening," Clint said his smile not fading knowing that this event wouldn't cause Toni any long term pain so Natasha probably wouldn't scold him for laughing at it.

"_Be gentle," Toni told him, "this is my first time." Here Piper spotted what was going on and his eyes widened even more. Standing on the podium robotic arms were grabbing at pieces of the Iron Man suit as Toni insisted, "I designed this to come off so…"_

"Slight design flaw in the first prototype," Toni huffed offended as the others continued laughing at her misfortune.

"_I really should be able to…" Toni said trying to say something else but JARVIS interrupted, "Please, try not to move, ma'am."_

"_What's going on here?" Piper said confused as he walked further into the lab and Toni turned only just realising that he had entered the room. "Let's face it," she told him, "this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."_

"I don't even want to think about it," Steve said blushing slightly. Poor Piper! He might not like the guy but if what he was thinking was correct then walking in on that had to be severely uncomfortable.

"_Are those bullet holes?" Piper said breathily identifying the holes in the suit for what they really were._

The cheerful mood died a little at the realisation that some damage had actually been done to the suit but they tried to stay in good spirits for a little while longer.

_Back in what was clearly the Ten Rings camp a visitor was approaching in some very fancy black cars indicating that they were probably not a native of the country._

"I have a bad feeling about this," Bruce said nervously hoping that his hunch was not correct.

_As Raza watched on Obadiah Stane emerged from the backseat of the first car in the train._

To say all hell broke loose at this sight was the understatement of the century and was probably the only accurate use of that phrase ever.

**A/N – And yes I am being mean and ending it there. See you next chapter xx Love ya**


	53. Obadiah in Afghanistan

Chapter 53 – Obadiah in Afghanistan

**A/N – Trying to make chapters gradually longer again but god I am so tired :) Which is weird for me because I never get tired. It's Monday now and I've had no reply from XxXSilverShadowXxX so Amara Calla you're next in line for getting a oneshot in this verse :) And we reached number 600 so XxxBellaBellaxxX I also owe you one :D The next prize is something that you have to get creative with; tell me what you would do to Obie if he was still alive/you were an Avenger. I'll pick my favourite and you'll win a oneshot :) You can submit one entry per review and all those submitted before 700 reviews will count.**

**youwannabekate: I'm glad you liked that line :) I love making what is usually a hyperbole come true :D Righteous indignation is so fun to write :) He's not quite going to Hulk out yet but it's going to have to happen at some point isn't it. I'm trying to mix it up a little with introspection in some chapters being heavier than in others :) Glad you liked it**

**LianaDare8: More reactions in this chapter :) Enjoy!**

**Post U Later: Yes, I had to give them the laugh because the next scenes are emotionally devastating. I would say that lucky would be somewhat of an understatement in this case :) **

**ReadPaxJoy: I am really glad that you liked the chapter and happy belated birthday to you :) Glad you liked your pseudo present and a very warm welcome back.**

**babyliss12: Indeed it has :) Thoroughly going to enjoy writing the next section :D ~#Takes 15%#~**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Feel free to join in on cursing Obie and join the contest for another oneshot :) Hope you like the scenes**

**ladynarutochan: Don't Gibbs-slap me that's mean and I might stop updating so quickly :) And yes I did just play that card. Enjoy!**

**writergirl85: Yep, public bad guy Obie is finally here :D There's a few of the things they say about him in this chapter and I will think about doing an outtake but I'm really busy.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Glad you liked it and I hope you enjoy this one! Get thinking about your oneshot :D **

**nessa11997: You're welcome :)**

**ReenReen: Aww, I'm really glad that I haven't disappointed you so far :D Enjoy!**

**Harm Marie: I'm glad :) **

**Peeves' best friend: I appreciate that you still like this story but I would suggest that you don't read this story if you can't appreciate that this is my take on the character because you probably won't like where I take the story. Toni is NOT Tony and I have made that very clear; there are so many different things that could have changed Tony's life if he had made a different decision and Toni made some of them. And Tony does prepare for things in canon otherwise the research on the thermonuclear astrophysics would never have happened. **

Toni's immediate concern was the man on the sofa next to her because Bruce looked dangerously close to hulking out as his skin began to acquire a distinctly green tint. She knew that if he Hulked out at this it didn't bode well for later on and she didn't particularly want a destroyed living room to fix up after the final repairs on the tower had finally been completed to her liking. She knew that the others would probably end up causing at least some property damage in their fits of anger but Bruce was the most destructive when he was the jolly green giant.

Thor was probably next in line on that list because he was producing a lot of lightning in his anger which was scorching the armchair that he occupied quite severely. That one was probably going to need to be replaced by the end of this movie. She didn't see the point of replacing the armchair right away however seeing as he would probably ruin the new one once they got to the part where Obie had betrayed her again by attempting to kill her in person… twice.

She wasn't so worried about the others who were merely throwing curses around threatening Obie's life and health even though the man was already dead. She wasn't sure she wanted to get in the way of their venting though because she doubted many of them could distinguish between her and someone who deserved their anger at this point. Of course she would know logically that they weren't shouting at her and calling her all of those things if they did turn them on her unintentionally due to getting caught up in their rage but she wasn't sure her psyche could take more insults from people she saw as friends even if they didn't mean them. She was quite enjoying the cursing actually as Steve was proving that he could swear quite adequately as his super strength ruined another one of her armchairs. Normally she would have made the pair who were ruining her furniture pay to buy new ones to go into storage whilst she dragged the ones that were in storage into the room. But to be honest she found their anger quite flattering as nobody had ever been that angry on her behalf before as far as she could remember. And seeing as she could remember a fair way back it was likely that nobody had ever been that angry on her behalf. She doubted anything too bad (other than the neglect from her father) had happened to her up to the age of one and a half.

Clint, Phil and Natasha's curses were more colourful as you would expect of people from this century who had travelled around a lot and spent a lot of time around people of the vilest sort. Natasha had also reverted to her mother tongue to curse Obie with Russian cutting clearly through the other yells making Toni chuckle a little for she understood every word. Some of the things that Natasha was threatening to do to Obie were not anything that even Toni would repeat in any form of 'civilized society.' She did quite like the sound of lowering Obie into a pit of scorpions and then injecting him with the antidote before doing it again though. It was almost a shame that the others couldn't do anything about him seeing as he had already passed away.

Whilst Toni had been relishing in the reactions of the others Bruce had gotten even closer to hulking out and Toni cursed herself for getting distracted and slid across the couch nearer to him and using as soothing a tone as she could managed told him, "it's okay Bruce! Stane is dead and has been for a while now. There's no point in changing because all you will accomplish is causing a lot of damage to my sitting room and I'd prefer it if that didn't happen thank you. I'm fine, I'm still here." She had to repeat that sentence over and over again for what felt like hours before Bruce relaxed and the green tint faded from his skin although she couldn't quite get it to disappear from his eyes which gave her a very bad feeling about the state her sitting room would be in by the end of this film. But she had prevented a Hulk out this time around and the others were also beginning to calm down obviously having listened to her speech and realised that Obie was still in fact deceased and all their plotting against him was for naught. Finally JARVIS was able to restart the film and as Toni checked her watch she realised that the ranting against him had lasted nearly half an hour before she had managed to stop it.

_Obie looked thoroughly displeased with the Afghani troops he was affiliated with as he walked forward surrounded by his own personal group._

"Holding out hope that this ends badly for at least one party," Natasha said with a scowl. To be honest she would prefer it to be the Ten Rings at this point because she already knew that Obie would end up dead and she would prefer a later death for him accompanied by the eradication of the Ten Rings organisation than just Obadiah's death.

"_Welcome," Raza said clearly just as pleased as Obie was to be having this conversation as Obie inspected the nasty burn on the side of his head which he explained as being, "Compliments of Toni Stark."_

"I'd have been quite happy to give everyone else there one too," Toni said with a sinister smirk, "completely free for people who deserve it."

"_If you'd killed her when you were supposed to, you'd still have a face," Obie said not at all sympathetic to his plight. Collateral damage wasn't something that Obie was really interested as long as it didn't interfere with his plans._

The Avengers weren't exactly happy that they had gotten confirmation that Obie had been the brains behind trying to get Toni killed. Of course the minute he had showed up they had figured out that had to be the case but the fact that they now knew for sure was not of any comfort whatsoever. Everyone in Toni's life seemed to be turning against her one after one and while some of the came back a la Rhodey a lot of them ended up leaving her for good. Even if losing people like Howard and Obie seemed to be for the best it had to hurt Toni at the time even if it was just a little. Maybe more so with Obie who had pretended to her friend and confidant whereas she clearly had nothing but contempt for Howard.

"_You paid us trinkets to kill a princess," Raza said dangerously clearly not afraid of Obadiah. Or at least not afraid enough to be scared of standing up to him._

"Making me sound like something out of a Disney movie," Toni muttered upset at being referred to as a princess. If he had to use a metaphor along those lines then he could have at least gone for queen.

"That's why he didn't just let you die from the bomb he set off," Clint realised, "and instead let Yinsen perform the surgery that was going to save you. He knew who you were from the moment you were brought in to prevent you from getting medical attention I presume and he decided that he wanted more out of you. So he decided that before he killed you he would get you to make him the missile so that he could have more power to utilise on civilians he wanted to intimidate and then he would dispose of you like Obadiah wanted. But you ruined the plan and Obie must have been shocked to hear that you were found wandering through the desert."

"_Show me the weapon," Obie said ignoring his last statement._

"Not a weapon," Toni muttered darkly.

_Raza seemed to hesitate for a moment before deciding that Obie would get what he came for and telling him, "Come. Leave your guards outside."_

_Obie indicated that the guards should follow that order and followed Raza into a tent as his guards and the Ten Rings members faced each other obviously sizing each other up. _

"I have a feeling one side of that standoff is not going to come out of it in the same state that they went in," Bruce said inspecting the expressions of both sides of the standoff. Personally he hoped it was the Ten Rings because other than the fact that they obviously knew that Obie was in contact with the group he didn't have a personal vendetta with them like he did with the men who had seen fit to torture Toni for three months.

_The moment Obie entered the room he spotted the reassembled Mark I Iron Man armour which had probably taken the Ten Rings weeks to reassemble even with Toni's original plans. "Her escape bore unexpected fruit," Raza informed him._

"Not that you could ever make use of that thing again," Toni scoffed.

"Especially since they don't even have the arc reactor to power it," Natasha pointed out, "they'd need to go through Annie to get that and there is no way that she'll just hand it over."

Toni sighed a little at this statement because after all she hadn't exactly handed over the arc reactor no but he hadn't let that stop him getting on his hands on it. She was infinitely glad that arc reactor had burned up with Obie because the thing had been tainted by Obie's affiliation with it.

"_So this is how she did it," Obie said admiring the suit._

"For someone who hates you he sure does put a lot of stock in your work," Steve commented.

"As much as I'm sure he would have hated to admit it, he needed me to run the company because if I hadn't continued sending him designs when my father died in the car accident then the company stocks would have plummeted," Toni informed him, "he needed me but he just would have preferred if I had stayed out of business and kept sending him ideas that he could take partial credit for. It was when I stepped out of seclusion and into the spotlight that I became a problem for him."

"_This is only a first, crude effort," Raza informed him, "Stark has perfected her design. She has made a masterpiece of death. A man with a dozen of these can rule all of Asia."_

"Far from perfected," Toni scoffed, "that was only the Mark III that he witnessed me piloting. My current model is the Mark X and I still wouldn't call it perfect otherwise I wouldn't still work on it."

"I'm more horrified by the fact that he had designs on ruling Asia," Bruce said, "the last thing the East needed at the time was a psychopath in charge of the continent."

"_And you dream of Stark's throne," Raza continued obviously he had hit on something he thought would buy him a new deal with Obadiah Stane, "We have a common enemy," here he wandered over to a table and sat down clearly becoming more relaxed now he had the possibility of making a deal as he poured himself a drink of some sort of tea, "If we are still in business, I will give you these designs as a gift."_

"I do not think that reasoning with this Stane and making deals with him will work in the torturer's favour," Thor said obviously very pleased by this fact. He was most keen to see the torturers of Lady Toni meet their inevitable fate as quickly as possible.

"_And in turn," Raza said directly to Stane raising his cup, "I hope you'll repay me with the gift of iron soldiers."_

_Obie made his way over smiling and put his hand on Raza's shoulder in a supposed friendly gesture before opening up a device and activating it as it glowed bright red. A high pitched buzzing came from the device as glowing blue earplugs in Obie's ears became evident just like the veins in Raza's face as he seized up._

Toni tensed at seeing the device that had nearly ended up taking her life away from her. She couldn't help but think that even Raza hasn't quite deserved the torture that device did to you but that thought didn't linger long because she couldn't feel sympathy for that monster for any longer than a second.

"_This is the only gift you shall receive," Obie told him in Urdu before switching back to English, "Technology. It's always been your Achilles heel in this part of the world," he began to remove his earplugs now the device was no longer on, "Don't worry. It'll only last for fifteen minutes. That's the least of your problems."_

Toni guessed that Obadiah really was sick in more than the ways that she had already known about because he seemed to have a passion for telling his victims that their world was about to fall apart whilst they were paralysed and obviously unable to stop him. That was torture worse than anything the Ten Rings could concoct and she was so glad that he was dead so he couldn't inflict that misery on anybody else.

"That thing is sick," Bruce exclaimed, "paralysis is in some ways worse than death because you live but you're so limited in what you can do. And experiencing that even if it is only for fifteen minutes would be the most horrifying fifteen minutes of your life."

"And the worst part is," Clint chimed in, "he doesn't give a damn about any of that. In fact he was practically bragging there that he got one up on Raza. I don't like the guy and it's not like he didn't deserve it but Obadiah is sick for not thinking of something else to use to subdue him."

_As Raza sat paralysed only his eyes still capable of any type of movement Obadiah burst from the tent to the sight of his men holding the Ten Rings at gunpoint as they knelt on the sand._

"At least that takes care of them," Bruce said spitefully for once not disgusted that those men would probably meet their deaths because just like any of the invaders who tried to attack Earth and came up against the Avengers they were the type of scum that deserved to die.

"_Crate up the armour and the rest of it," Obie told his soldiers as he walked back over to the car that he had arrived in, "All right, let's finish up here." As he walked away the sound of machine gun fire filled the air and the white flashes from the guns darted across the desert floor. Obadiah had just seriously depleted what remained of the Ten Rings force if he hadn't eliminated everyone but Raza._

"He had to leave Raza alive though," Toni sighed knowing now that the man was probably still out there and if she ever came across him whilst she wasn't with the other Avengers then she really had to watch her back because he had to have enough hate for the entire organisation built up against her by now which he had been unable to act on.

"_Set up Sector 16 underneath the arc reactor," Obadiah told someone on the other end of his phone call as his car sped away from the scene, "and I'm going to want this data masked. Recruit our top engineers, I want a prototype right away."_

**A/N – And we've dealt with Obie so it's back to Toni and Piper for the next chapter. I will see you then and hope I get lots of entries for the contest because who doesn't want to mess with Stane after seeing IM.**


	54. You're Going To Kill Yourself

Chapter 54 – You're Going To Kill Yourself

**A/N – Very scared of you guys after hearing what you want to do to Obie. Nah, not really but still wow! This is going to be a tough decision for me and the competition continues for a while yet.**

**KittenSparrow: I might do an AU of this story where they watch it at some point but I've got so much on my plate that it won't be anytime soon.**

**Booklover2526: I'm glad that you liked the drama even if it you knew what would happen next. Enjoy this chapter!**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :)**

**LianaDare8: Glad you liked it and especially the team's reactions because those were some of my favourite scenes to write in this story so far.**

**youwannabekate: Loving the mythology route you went down there :) Biggest mythology geek in the world here after all :D Hello from therapy come join me :D Glad you're excited and hope this lives up to your expectations.**

**ReaderoftheBooks: Like the sound of unleashing Natasha on him; I'd enjoy the show during that one :D Glad you liked it**

**Pagen Goddess: That's why I couldn't resist putting it in. The irony was too hard to resist :D**

**Post U Later: I know right! And I don't often wish death on anyone even fictional characters.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I know, thank god! That technology always gave me the creeps when I saw it because it's basically complete torture in a compact form! Uggh!**

**ladynarutochan: Most of the suggestions are sick but it's Obie so :D I suggest no physical harm if you want more chapters. Yup! Enjoy :)**

**babyliss12: Gruesome but I'm a big CSI fan so I don't really care :D One of the leading ones so far I think :) Glad you liked it**

**XxXSilverShadowXxX: Glad you're still liking it :) And it's okay, maybe you'll pick up another oneshot along the way :D**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked the chapter and the reactions that the others had to Obie :) I will add that to the very long list of stuff I should already be writing :D**

**Amara Calla: Sure, just PM me when you've come up with an idea. Glad you enjoyed it and I certainly will :)**

"At least his plan is going to fail completely if that is the only one that he's got," Bruce said slightly relieved that Obie didn't appear to have a substantial plan that might actually have ended up seriously endangering Toni and he might never have met her if things had gone his way with a more thought out plan, "he's never going to be able to actually make the suit work."

Natasha however despite her previous agreement with this statement was beginning to feel a bit uneasy about the evidence already presented before her in earlier scenes. Obie clearly had it in for her more than just because he wanted her throne if he hired terrorists in Afghanistan to kill her instead of going to an assassin who would get it over with clean and quick. And he must have predicted that they would torture Toni before they killed her too because they were that type of organisation. That spoke of a man who was willing to do anything to Toni to get what he ultimately wanted and preferably it would involve as much torture as possible. Now that they had a device that induced paralysis had been introduced Natasha was getting the distinct feeling that it wasn't going to be just thrown aside after being used on Raza. But she did her best to delude herself into believing she had to be wrong and that Obie wasn't smart enough to think of that. It wasn't working all that well.

_Piper entered another one of Toni's labs to find Toni working on the Mark III Iron Man suit. Once she was finished detaching the part she had been working on she gave Piper some of her attention, "hey! You busy? You mind if I send you on an errand?"_

"Wasn't it kind of Piper's job to go on errands for you at the time?" Clint said confused as to why Toni would be asking Piper to do something for her when it was what he was being paid to do. And knowing Toni's penchant for overpaying for things and splurging on buying entire buildings to keep restaurants she liked in business (or so she could knock down places that were known criminal hotspots or were violating several health codes) Piper was probably paid exorbitantly well for doing so.

"Yeah, but this wasn't just any old request," Toni told him, "if I'm asking him to do something that is a little unusual or could be morally against someone's values I always make sure to ask first and then I'll try and do it myself and if I can't then I'll look for someone else who can and is willing to."

_Toni stepped away from her work and walked over to the desk nearest to Piper telling him, "I need you to go to my office. You're going to hack into the mainframe and you're going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests."_

"And that is one of the reasons we get on so well Annie," Natasha said, "you know not to go charging into a situation without any Intel no matter how angry you are about what's happening. You act rashly like anybody else in the world sometimes but nobody can say that you let your emotions rule your life if they see you in a crisis situation."

"_This is a lock chip," Toni told her picking up a device that was obviously more sophisticated than the USB drive that it appeared to be, "This'll get you in. It's probably under Executive Files. If not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading."_

"SHIELD would kill for something like that because they don't have many good hackers despite being an intelligence organisation," Phil commented. If that comment had come from anyone else who had worked for SHIELD in any capacity excluding Natasha and Clint then Toni would have kicked them out of her Tower and told them to never come back. But she knew that Phil had no plans to steal her tech and take it to the intelligence organisation. He just knew the ins and outs of SHIELD and that they would need something like that to get their operations at optimum level. Toni was quite happy keeping her tech away from them and not giving SHIELD anymore power.

"_And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?" Piper said glancing down at the drive that he was holding in his hands._

"I have a feeling overprotective Piper is coming back," Steve sighed. He quite liked the Piper from earlier on in this movie but he could sense the Piper that he had a few unpleasant altercations with coming back now. And it wasn't the most thrilling thing in the world.

"_Same drill," Toni deadpanned probably sensing that Piper was not going to be happy with this idea, "They've been dealing under the table and I'm going to stop them. I'm going to find my weapons and destroy them."_

"He's not going to react well to that," Bruce sighed. Honestly he didn't like Toni going out and risking her life any more than Piper did because she was probably the most vulnerable of them all even if you factored in her training outside the suit because when fighting someone who had more training than her unless she got lucky she could lose outside the suit in that situation. But unlike Piper he seemed to understand that there was absolutely nothing that you could do to stop Toni once she had an idea in her head and so he didn't try. And the amount of lives that Toni had saved whilst risking her own was a monumental amount that while he hated to admit it was probably worth the risks that she took.

"_Toni," Piper said taking a deep breath before he continued, "you know that I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you are going to start all of this again."_

"Now should be the time that Friend Toni was given the most help from those close to her for the benefit of her righteous crusade," Thor said offended by Piper's statement, "shield brothers should stand by one another no matter what one of them is doing unless it is wrong by the laws of your land."

"_There is nothing except this," Toni told him beginning to get angry that he didn't understand what she was trying to do, "There's no art opening. There is no benefit. There is nothing to sign. There is the next mission and nothing else."_

"Okay I admit that is a slightly unhealthy level of obsession," Natasha said and sensing Toni's wrath was about to come down on her she continued, "but Annie had the right idea in principle. You just shouldn't go into a mission and lose yourself in it."

"It worked didn't it?" Toni said as her only defence.

"_Is that so?" Piper said sadly, "Well, then, I quit." With that he threw the drive back down onto the desk and turned to make his way out of the room but Toni stopped him with a snapped, "You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. And now that I'm trying to protect the people that I put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?"_

"You don't hold back on the hard hitting points do you Toni?" Clint said impressed by her cutting straight to the heart of the matter which was that Piper seemed to only be okay with her when she was being the typical billionaire that appeared in the papers in a negative light.

"_You're going to kill yourself, Toni," Piper retorted, "I'm not going to be a part of it."_

"_I shouldn't be alive," Toni deadpanned as she took a seat again resolutely not looking at Piper._

The shocked looks on the Avengers faces at this statement were unanimous because somehow despite her risk taking and their quips about her having suicidal tendencies they never quite pictured her as actually saying something that genuinely screamed out that she didn't believe she deserved to live.

"Answer me honestly Annie," Natasha said cautiously not sure if this would be received well, "did you ever consider committing suicide? And I mean ever!"

"If we're being honest then yes," Toni told them shrugging, "but that was a long time ago when I was in seclusion and my life was basically one big mess wrapped up in a bow. I don't think like that nowadays."

"_Unless it was for a reason," Toni finished finally explaining fully why she really wanted to do this for people, "I'm not crazy, Piper. I just finally know what I have to do," she paused a second before making her next statement as if wondering whether it would reveal too much, "And I know in my heart that it's right."_

"Toni's motivations for doing anything on a silver platter there," Bruce said shaking his head fondly. He supposed Toni was reckless with her own life but it was because she had this deep rooted belief that other people's lives were worth more than hers because of some mistakes that she had made. Of course that was wrong but wasn't that what made a superhero live up to the hero part of their title. They always cared more for others than they did for themselves on at least some level. Even the assassins of the group cared about human life and valued it unlike the villains out there who didn't get the sanctity of life.

_Piper breathed deeply clearly realising that Toni was really passionate about this and wouldn't be talked out of the risks she was taking to fulfil what she saw as her purpose so he walked back over to the flash drive and picked it up and confessed, "you're all I have too you know," before leaving._

Natasha considered this last statement thoughtfully realising that was maybe one of the reasons that Piper was so protective of Toni. Because he was trying to protect the only person that he had but he saw that he wasn't the only person that Toni had anymore since the Avengers had rolled into town. Which is why he had always clearly felt threatened by them.

**A/N – Yay! The end of this chapter finally :) Think my mum is waking up and I haven't gone to bed yet. Whoops!**


	55. Corporate Espionage

Chapter 55 – Corporate Espionage

**A/N – Still loving all of your comments so please keep leaving them for me :D I am so tired having gone back to school for more of the day… I hate school sometimes.**

**LianaDare8: Hope you enjoy that scene when we get to it :) **

**nessa11997: You're welcome :)  
**

**youwannabekate: Yeah, I'm from Scotland. Pretty sure I've mentioned that before. And I am an insomniac; just a staying up to 5am one :D Believe me the only cool that the UK is bloody freezing because of the low temperatures. I would much rather live somewhere hot. I'm glad that you liked my take on that comment because that's my genuine opinion on it so I'm glad you liked it. **

**Booklover2526: Hope you enjoy this chapter :) And sounds like Obie would be well punished in your capable hands.**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Forgiveness and hugs all round here :) This is a pleasant space. Glad you liked it.**

**moonyrocks13: Yep, I was on holiday for a while and so was she so she slept in but now she wakes up and I'm like I haven't gone to sleep yet and if she finds me I am so screwed.**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: They are totally going to lose it :) And I mean really :D  
**

**ReadPaxJoy: Going to take that as a compliment. I'm glad that you liked it :D **

**babyliss12: Angry Avengers are so fun to write so I'm looking forward to it. Especially since between them they have a lot of ideas for threats.**

**Post U Later: I'm glad you liked that bit; I kind of thought she might admit to it as long as she was able to tell them straight away that wasn't considering it anymore. **

**Dragones: It's a really pretty dress isn't it :) I'm pretty sure most people would look good in it. Glad you're liking the chapters so far :D  
**

"At least Piper stepped up and decided that he would help you out once you gave your explanation," Steve said glad that eventually Piper had come around. He knew that while Piper was overprotective his earlier statement about how he would do anything for Toni wasn't far off the mark. Within reason Piper had proved that point several times but the thing was that the one thing he couldn't do was stop being overly worried about Toni. And that was what ultimately drove him to become more overprotective of his now former girlfriend. Maybe someone else would be flattered by the fact that someone cared enough about them to be so protective but Steve knew that for Toni it had to be sign that he thought she wasn't capable of making her own decisions.

"After that speech I would bloody well hope so," Toni muttered softly knowing that while she was known for her speech making prowess that was the best explanation she had ever given of anything not related to science. Purely because she didn't have to lie even a little to appease someone and in the moment she hadn't even wanted to hold something back with was rare for her.

_The elevator doors at the Stark Industries building opened and Piper walked out with his hand clenched into a fist looking around a little nervously as if wondering if anyone could tell that something was up with him._

"Now I see why you don't send him in to do scouting missions for you more often," Natasha sighed, "his poker face is lousy and if you look guilty then everyone around you will want to know what you're really up to."

"Exactly," Toni said, "I was around when he attempted to get information out of someone for me once and it was very nearly a train wreck. If I hadn't managed to step in and save the situation it wouldn't have ended well for anyone who was at that party."

"I hope he doesn't panic if someone confronts him," Clint said worried that if Piper got into trouble it would have far reaching consequences for Toni as well as for himself. Of course he didn't wish anything bad on Piper despite their disagreements but he was more worried about Obie would do to Toni if he found out she was onto him in more than one way.

_Luckily the floor was empty and Piper's suspicious behaviour went unnoticed as he approached Toni's office. He opened the door cautiously obviously making sure that Obadiah wasn't using the office before he walked in._

"Why would he need to look around because I'm pretty sure that has to be your office considering where it's placed?" Phil asked. Surely it would be empty unless Toni was there and she clearly wasn't seeing as she was working on the Iron Man suit back in one of her many labs.

"It's officially the office of the CEO of Stark Industries which meant before it was my office it was Obie's office and since I was never in there he enjoyed violating company policy and using it as his office even though he was given a new one. I knew about it I just didn't really mind it. Except when he drank my alcohol at which point I did get angry with him," Toni explained.

_Piper neatly closed the door over before making his way rapidly over to the main desk where Toni's computer was located. As he sat down Toni's screensaver showing a multitude of sports cars was visible before he moved the mouse and the screen popped up a window asking for a password. Piper retrieved the drive from his suit pocket and plugged it in so that it could begin bypassing the security. As it connected a flashing message appeared on the screen warning of a security breach._

"What went wrong?" Bruce said wondering why Toni's tech had triggered had that reaction when Toni had to know about the security systems on it seeing as it was her own computer.

"It was meant to do that," Toni told him, "have faith please! The easiest way into the system does trip an alarm on the computers setting off a string of alerts so you can easily pinpoint the source of the intrusion. But what the drive did was it set off the alarm then immediately muted it so it became localised to that machine and couldn't set off any alerts in the system. Then it's easy to get in to the system without waiting for too long and it's much harder for people to figure out that anyone was ever in the system."

_But the driver quickly loaded up a string of codes and pinpointed the one that Piper needed causing the message to change to a green box telling him that he now had access to the systems._

"We really shouldn't make assumptions until we've seen the result," Steve sighed, "or we just end up looking stupid when Toni pulls something else out of nowhere."

_The software then proceeded to scan all of the inputs to the computer and only took a few seconds before it indicated that it had discovered the ghost drive that Toni had been talking about._

"I'm surprised that Mr Stane thought he could hide anything from Lady Toni in her own systems," Thor said wondering how Obadiah Stane could have been so reckless with top secret information that he needed to keep hidden.

"I'm guessing that seeing as Toni barely ever came into her office as he said earlier he was assuming that she wouldn't come in just to do a scan of the systems herself and anyone she would hire to do it wouldn't be able to find it in the masses of code that make up Toni's computers," Bruce speculated looking to Toni for confirmation.

"Well, that's partially correct. I don't let anybody else scan my systems as there are too many people who would like to get their hands on that coding so they could attempt to get into the markets that I pretty much have cornered. Too many opportunities for sabotage come with outside technicians coming in so I don't allow them. But you're right in that I don't run scans when I come into the offices as usually I spend the time I have there in meetings and just stop of to get a drink between the boring conversation," Toni clarified, "I run a check on my systems from home but they searched for external interference at the time and this was of course internal. They do both now and I do sometimes do in person checks as well. And my staff are all personally interviewed by me before I will let them anywhere near any of my buildings other than in the visitors areas."

_Piper scrolled through the folders that were contained on the ghost drive finding invoices for weapons that had been sold to Afghanistan and other countries like it and information on Sector 16 as a schematic of a larger version of the Iron Man suit popped up on the screen. "Sector 16?" Piper questioned wondering what all of this was about, "What are you up to, Obadiah?"_

"Nothing good," Natasha spat out glaring at the designs for the suit Obie had been planning on building taking due notice that this suit was definitely a weapon. Anything that wasn't occupied by essential mechanisms that made the suit work had a gigantic gun or explosive strapped on to it.

_He clicked on the next folder and up came footage of Toni surrounded by the Ten Rings from the video they had seen being made at the beginning of the film. As the burlap sack was pulled away from Toni's face Piper flinched back probably at seeing the state her face was in._

"I feel sorry for him having to see you like that," Clint said sympathetically, "because it must have been a shock because the time you came back most of your injuries were covered up and you looked relatively fine aside from the gash on your cheek and the fact that they made you wear a sling on your right arm."

_He neatly typed a 'translate' command into the computer wanting to understand what was being said and it wasn't pretty, "you did not tell us that the target you paid us to kill was the great Toni Stark. As you can see, Obadiah Stane…"_

"_Oh my god…" Piper exclaimed suddenly confronted with the blatant fact that it had been Obadiah who had instigated Toni's kidnap._

"And I don't envy him having to find out that way either," Natasha sighed, "at least we had our suspicions before it was officially revealed that Obie was behind the kidnapping plot but Piper must have been totally blindsided by the news."

"…_your deception and lies will cost you dearly," the spokesman continued , "The price to kill Toni Stark had just gone up."_

"Nice to know my life is worth a lot," Toni said sarcasm simply rolling off her tongue as she rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

_Piper seemingly unable to watch anymore of the video initiated the process of copying all of the files that were on the ghost drive over to the drive that Toni had given him so she could see them. _

"_So," Obadiah said from the doorway shocking Piper so much that he visibly jumped, "what are we going to do about this?"_

"Very bad timing," Bruce said with a scowl, "Piper needs to get out of there as soon as he can without it looking suspicious or there is going to be serious trouble."

_Piper's eyes followed Obie's movements as he walked over to the bottle of scotch that Toni had sitting on a table and poured himself a glass._

"Can't keep his bloody hands off my alcohol," Toni said angrily, "sometimes I wonder if I really should lock it up to stop people getting their hands on it so easily."

"That would make drinking nights with me slightly more complicated though Annie," Natasha pointed out.

"_I know what you're going through Piper," Obie told him as Piper glanced nervously at the screen that still showed that the files were being copied over. Obadiah took a deep breath before taking a sniff of the scotch and saying almost affectionately, "Ah Toni. She always gets the good stuff, doesn't she?"_

"He is a worryingly good actor," Phil said glad that Obadiah Stane was dead otherwise he probably would have gone on to cause a lot of problems for the world in general. Not to mention that Toni and Piper would probably be dead and there was the distinct possibility that he might have ended up that way too.

_Piper smiled and nodded trying to act like he wasn't perturbed by Obadiah's sudden entrance and attempt to make conversation as he moved the newspaper of the day as subtly as he could over the drive so that Obie wouldn't be able to see it. And as Obie began to move around towards him he carefully managed to click on a button that reset the screen of the computer back to the screensaver. _

"At least I've managed to teach him something about covering things up I guess," Toni said with a sigh knowing that at some point Obie had figured out that Piper was working in cahoots with her because of what he had said to her when he was ripping her heart out.

_Obie took a look at the screen before he made his next comment sounding almost completely genuine, "I was so relieved when she came home. It was like we got her back from the dead. Now I realise," here he took a seat on the desk staring intensely at Piper, "well, Toni never really did come home, did she? She left a part of herself in that cave. Breaks my heart."_

"Yes, the bad part," Toni said freely admitting that she had lost something in the cave. But it had been any genuine arrogance that she had once had over what she could do that she had left behind not anything that made her a worse person than she was before she left.

"That last comment was overdoing it a little," Natasha said wincing about how out of place it sounded coming from the slimy man that was Obadiah Stane. She didn't think he had a heart that could break.

"_Well, she's a complicated person," Piper reasoned, "She's been through a lot. I think she'll be alright."_

"_You are a very rare man," Obie told him sincerely, "Toni doesn't know how lucky she is."_

"Says the man who didn't want to hire him in the first place," Toni scoffed, "that one was my idea as usual. Nothing he came up with ever worked out long term and it was always my plan we went with in the end. Only ever went along with his briefly to give the appearance that I still valued his opinion on business matters."

"_Thank you," Piper said giving a realistic smile, "Thanks," and the he rose from his chair with a quick, "I'd better get back there," using the newspaper to remove the drive from the USB port so that Obie wouldn't see it and folding it over so that the drive was concealed inside before making his way towards the door._

"_Is that today's paper?" Obie called after him._

"Oh no," Clint realised, "he's on to him. It had to be some of the expressions that he was making earlier because he looked uncomfortable with the situation whereas before he would probably have been more comfortable with it."

_Piper stopped dead and turned back to face him saying, "yes," as Obadiah got up and walked over asking her, "do you mind?"_

"He's checking up on him thinking that he won't have enough time to hide anything if he goes right over and gives an excuse for doing so," Phil analysed.

"_Not at all," Piper said smoothly handing the paper over and neatly sliding the drive into her hand were he clutched onto it tightly so it wouldn't be visible. _

"_Puzzle," Obadiah told him by way of excuse which Piper answered with a quick, "Of course," before exiting the room as casually as he was able to so as to not attract any more suspicion from Obie who told him to, "Take care," before making his way back over to the desk._

"The information will probably still be up on the screen," Bruce said worriedly because Piper hadn't had nearly enough time to get any significant amount of distance between them yet.

_He threw the paper down on the desk and dismissed the screensaver only to see a dialogue box saying 'download complete' and cursing before pushing himself back up from his chair._

**A/N – Yay, I am officially done with this chapter and you know what's up next :D**


	56. Author's Note

**A/N - I'd really like to apologise to all of you who were expecting a chapter round about now that you were all really looking forward to but I find myself unable to deliver. Earlier on today I passed out cold whilst writing the beginning of the chapter and my mother forbade me from going on again until I could go to the hospital later on this morning but I couldn't sleep without telling you all why there is no chapter so this is my note to you and I hope that you can forgive me and I will try my best to get one up tomorrow.**


	57. Left To Die

Chapter 56 – Left To Die

**A/N – I'm back people! I know almost everyone was looking forward to something that's in this chapter which kind of makes me nervous about writing it but I'll give it a whirl :) Hope you guys enjoy it. And congrats to AliseEve who was my 700****th**** reviewer and can request a oneshot in this verse. Next one is at 800.**

**youwannabekate: I'm telling you it does kind of suck here and I would love it to be that hot and we can totally swap if you want. I'm sick of it being freezing in summer. And I know that's commonly a Briticism but I told myself when I began this story that I wouldn't stress about them because I just need to get the chapters out. No need to wait anymore**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: It's like oh hello Phil! There you are again :) Have some more action :D**

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Uggh, there's always one I don't catch I guess. That's a little annoying. And I do it much more often with Piper. Keep calm babe :D **

**babyliss12: Basically everyone in this film gets in trouble at some point :D Glad you liked it.**

**Post U Later: At points she kind of was that nervous or at least from my analysis I would definitely know that something was up if she gave me that look. Enjoy the chapter!**

**nessa11997: You're welcome :D **

**LianaDare8: I wish I could make them longer but that would mean lessening the frequency of my updates. **

**Harm Marie: I'm glad :)**

**orangepaint: Aww, but I have to put some suspense in :) But I'm glad that you are enjoying this fanfiction and read it every night. Yay!**

"I knew that was going to happen," Bruce said nervously. He wondered if Piper had gotten more involved in the situation than he had anticipated because now that Obadiah knew that Piper knew about the things that he had been hiding. It had been risky getting another person involved but Bruce knew that Toni hadn't had much of a choice. Because of the injunction that was being filed against her at the time she couldn't go into the office. This was probably why Obie had told her to stay out of the spotlight rather than proving that she was fine to the general public because he needed to lock Toni out of the company to proceed with his plans.

_Piper made his way down the stairs once again walking away as fast as he could as Phil was shown sitting in a chair waiting on him to appear. "Mr Potts?" he said attracting Piper's attention, "We had an appointment. Did you forget about our appointment?"_

"You do seem to have the timing thing down to a tee Phil," Toni said with a smile, "that was the perfect moment for you to be there."

"I would say it would be you who had perfect timing then Toni," Phil pointed out, "seeing as it was you that picked out the time of the meeting. And set the place despite knowing that you probably wouldn't be able to show up due to the injunction that was filed against you."

"Well I was hoping that would get cleared up by then," Toni said, "I didn't know that Obadiah wasn't fighting for my side for sure at that point. I was hoping that by the time we had the meeting that I would be cleared to be back in the building again."

"I still say you were trying to avoid the debriefing," Phil accused knowing that Toni would avoid meetings with people in any way that she could. Especially people she had only just met as she didn't trust them one bit. But of course refusing to meet with them meant that she never trusted them at all and the cycle continued without end.

"_Nope," Piper informed him, "right now. Come with me. We're going to have it right now. Walk with me."_

"_Okay!" Phil said springing from his seat and following Piper obviously wondering what was so urgent and why Piper kept looking around like he was afraid something was going to jump out at him._

"_I'm going to give you the meeting of your life. Your office," Piper told him sincerely as Obadiah watched on from the top of the stairs unable to intervene because Piper had found someone to walk with._

"It was an interesting meeting to say the least," Phil admitted, "probably one of the more interesting ones I've had although I've had slightly stranger ones at times."

"The ones about aliens existing were interesting," Natasha interjected adding her own opinion on the subject, "half of the people in the room were questioning everything that Fury said even though they're supposed to look at the facts first which made it glaringly obvious that what he was saying was all true. People just don't want to believe what's right in front of them."

"To be honest if I hadn't been in New Mexico I would have had trouble believing it too," Clint admitted, "no offense meant Thor."

"I do not take any Friend Barton," Thor informed him, "it is understandable that when other worlds became evident to the people of Midgard that there would be many sceptics who did not believe the evidence that was presented before their eyes."

"I bet conspiracy theorists had a field day though," Bruce said with a smile.

_Obie stormed into a room flinging open the door so that it slammed into the wall behind him as one of the scientists who was on the phone talking to someone on the other end of the line, "Yeah, we've been working our best to do it. Absolutely we're…" suddenly he noticed Obie storming into the room and abruptly cut off his train of thought, "I'm going to have to call you back."_

"Poor man," Steve said, "I would not want to be faced with the wrath of that man when he's just been tricked. Especially since they probably haven't been able to replicate the arc reactor in its small form. Which is obviously a good thing." He clearly tagged that last bit on the end after he came face to face with Toni's glare at the mere suggestion that the man should be pitied because he wasn't able to create a weapon that would be used to kill people and one man might be a little angry with him for that reason.

"_Mr Stane?" the scientist said attempting to get his speech out there before the other man could start talking, "Sir, we've explored what you've asked us, and it seems as though there is a little hiccup. Actually…"_

"_A hiccup," Stane said angrily shifting his hands to his hips and staring down the poor man._

"I may not pity him but I certainly don't envy him," Bruce commented upon seeing how angry Stane was getting even though he didn't know the particulars of the situation yet. He was the kind of person that nobody in the world would wish for in a boss because he didn't care why something was going wrong. If it was going wrong then you were culpable and he would punish you for it. And if you caught him when he was already in a bad mood then you were the unluckiest person on the planet because any reason you might have been able to get him to see had he been in a good mood went out of the window. The best thing you could do was not do anything wrong in that situation. Unfortunately the only way it would go your way was if everything was perfect and nothing was ever perfect.

"_Yes," the scientist said nervously not sure how Obadiah would take the news that something obviously wasn't going well, "to power the suit, sir, the technology doesn't actually exist."_

Toni smiled a little at that because technically the only place that the precise technology on how to make those arc reactors only existed in her head. And while some people were also able to make arc reactors that small they weren't the same as hers.

"_So it's…" the scientist continued but Obie quickly cut him off, "Wait, wait, wait. The technology? William, here is the technology," here he pointed at the arc reactor that was powering the factory, "I've asked you to simply make it smaller."_

"He just doesn't get that it has to be impossible for anybody but you does he?" Clint said with a smirk revelling in the fact that Obie was outright failing at replicating Toni's designs.

"Well, that exact design is," Toni said knowing that with her luck they would probably be shown Ivan Vanko at some point and while he hadn't replicated her arc reactor he had succeeded in making one of his own. And he had the advantage of being able to use palladium to power his because it wasn't inserted into his body.

"_Okay, sir," William said quickly trying to get through to Obadiah, "and that's what we're trying to do, but honestly, it's impossible."_

"It may be true but that wasn't the most tactful way to reveal it to Obadiah," Natasha said wincing a little, "he's already out for blood. You don't appear to want to have him decide that your blood will do until he can get to who he really wants."

_Obadiah rounded on him finally reaching the limit of his patience, "Toni Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!"_

"_Well, I'm sorry," William said trying to placate Obadiah, "I'm not Toni Stark."_

"And thank god for that because the world does not need any more Toni Starks wandering around the place," Bruce said with a smile, "one is quite enough."

"I agree," Toni said nodding, "I think the world can only cope with one of me before it implodes."

"I'm pretty sure it has trouble handling just you at times Annie," Natasha joked good naturedly grateful that the matter seemed to be settled. The best scientists that Toni employed couldn't recreate her innovation so Obadiah's suit would never work. Yet that sickening feeling that something would still go wrong hadn't left her and Obadiah had to die somehow. She now had the distinct feeling that there was no way he had died of natural causes after all he had done. Yet any suspicious circs would have been reported on heavily and there had been nothing but the news reports the week he died about the 'plane crash.' Something was wrong. She just wanted this movie to be over with even if it meant moving on to another one which was likely to include her.

_Back at the Malibu mansion Toni was making her way across her main sitting room as one of her many phones was heard ringing. She looked around not quite able to tell where the sound was coming from before taking a guess and lifting the white cushion off of the sofa revealing the phone._

Clint couldn't help but smile at this semi-domestic action which seemed to make Toni a little more human. The amount of things that everyone else had to do that Toni had just made obsolete with some of her inventions. So seeing her have to physically look for a phone instead of just summoning it with a magnetic device was comforting. Mind you knowing Toni it probably had one now for convenience seeing as she had to take a few seconds out of her busy schedule to find it a couple of times.

_Checking the caller ID carefully to confirm that it was someone she wanted to talk to before she picked up Toni answered Piper's call. "Toni?" queried Piper but Toni was unable to reply as the buzz of the paralysation device filled the air and blue veins became prominent on Toni's face._

The atmosphere in the room changed in a heartbeat. Before that moment the people in the room had finally managed to settle down upon hearing that the scientists had been unable to replicate Toni's invention. But the moment that she was visibly in danger the room erupted with anger and Toni was the sole person left seated as the others leapt to their feet. Toni's primary concern was that Bruce's change into the Hulk was clearly imminent and that she doubted she'd be able to stop it this time.

That meant that someone needed to get Bruce out of the room and into one of the Hulk-proof areas in the house preferably before he changed. Unfortunately she couldn't do it herself because if he changed before they got there Toni was vulnerable without her suit and Bruce still had trouble controlling the Hulk if he didn't instigate the change. It didn't matter that the Hulk liked Toni because it might not register that she was someone he liked until after she had gone flying into a wall. That meant Natasha, Phil and Clint were out as well because despite their super spy status they didn't have the physical power to restrain the Hulk especially since he still didn't trust Natasha after the helicarrier incident.

Which left Thor and Steve as the only ones who could get him out safely and as Thor looked pretty close to destroying some valuable property himself with his lightning Toni knew that Steve had to be the one to deal with it. Of course that would require him to stop destroying her furniture for long enough to actually do something. "Steve," she called out keeping her voice as steady as possible, "I know you're busy destroying my $600 armchair which you will have to pay for but could you please escort Bruce out before I have to replace everything."

It might have been the mention of the expense or just her tone of voice but she managed to snap Steve out of his furious state momentarily and the super soldier darted across the room towards the door pulling Bruce along with him. This left Toni with just Thor to deal with because she reckoned that Phil, Tasha and Clint could refrain from shooting anything valuable with the help of their spy training. "Thor," Toni said, "we've never actually proved the theory that I am immune to your lightning because of the arc reactor so I would appreciate it if you didn't succeed where Obadiah obviously failed."

Unlike with Steve her speech wasn't an immediate trigger for Thor calming down as he had a more volatile personality but her taking several steps towards him until she was dangerously close to the bolts of lightning did. "Lady Toni," he exclaimed, "you shouldn't have gotten that close. I could have finished what that foul man started."

"But you didn't," Toni pointed out, "and he didn't manage it either and as I've said before _he is dead! _So there is no point in needless destruction of _my _property in some sort of preparation for revenge against a man who is long since dead."

"Have you ever actually talked about what happened to you after this?" Clint said concerned knowing that Toni's answer would probably be no. It was one thing for her to ignore her feelings about actions committed by strangers but for someone whom she had been close with to betray her like that had to have been devastating.

"No," Toni said, "that would mean telling someone what actually happened and according to SHIELD I wasn't allowed to muck up another one of their cover ups."

Phil flinched at this knowing that it had ultimately been him that had pulled her aside and told her that since she had insisted on telling the world that she was Iron Man that she shouldn't tell anyone about Obadiah. Of course he hadn't known about all of the particulars and he certainly hadn't known about him paralysing her.

The silence in the room seemed to be impenetrable for quite some time as Toni was refusing to talk about what had happened and the others were a little too scared of her reaction to try and press the issue. For the only one of them who didn't have any significant physical advantages she was still an extremely terrifying woman. Eventually Steve came back into the room followed by a rather dishevelled looking Bruce and they took their seats as Toni reached across and squeezed Bruce's arm as if to reassure him of the fact that she was still there. Of course nobody really wanted to watch the next part of the movie as their minds kept concocting more and more sinister scenarios about what would happen next. Eventually it was Clint who plucked up the courage to tell JARVIS to restart the movie.

"_Toni, are you there?" Piper asked as Obadiah pulled the phone from Toni's grasp, "Hello?"_

"_Breathe," Obadiah told her sarcastically as he gently lowered her back onto the couch, "Easy, easy."_

"So that bastard actually has the gall to act as if you're the one that's doing something to hurt yourself," Natasha snarled and Toni began to think that her screen was not going to survive the next few minutes.

"You know if everyone would just watch this without saying anything until the end that would be greatly appreciated," Toni said trying not to sound like she was pleading. It was hard enough to watch this without storming from the room but the constant commentary was beginning to become more than she could bear.

That seemed to stall any further comments that any of the other Avengers might have wanted to chip in about Obadiah's act so in the short term she was going to call it a success. Only time would tell if they would actually remember what she had said when it got to some of the worst parts of the event.

"_You remember this one, right?" Obadiah said showing off the paralysing tool, "It's a shame the government didn't approve it. There's so many applications for causing short-term paralysis."_

"_You _invented that thing," Steve said accusingly. At least this time his accusation was based on something realistic even though he was still wrong. "No," Toni told him, "my father did!"

That immediately stopped Steve dead as he wondered why he was suddenly trying to think of a good reason for the device to be created when he learned that his friend had invented it. Toni was his friend too yet he had automatically assumed the worst about her. Maybe he should stop rationalising things he heard about Howard but the problem was he tended to focus on first impressions. And Toni hadn't made a very good one. At first he had just wanted to get to know the last remnant of Howard and had been disappointed when she hadn't turned out to be very like him. But it was time to let go and get to know Toni as her own person before he ruined whatever traces of a friendship they had.

_Obadiah walked around the couch so that he would be visible to Toni and turned her head towards him saying, "Toni. When I ordered the hit on you," here he paused to open a briefcase he had brought with him and pull out a threatening looking device, "I worried that I was killing the golden goose," he attached the device to the arc reactor and smoke began to billow from it as it worked._

Clint and Natasha had taken to muttering curses against Obadiah under their breath in a tone that was quiet enough that Toni couldn't hear any specifics. Thor and Steve were obviously focusing very hard on not destroying more of Toni's furniture as Bruce's eyes flashed dangerously green once more.

"_But, you see, it was just," Obadiah told Toni as he pushed the handle of the device down causing Toni to groan in pain, "fate that you survived that." With that he neatly turned his device and pulled the arc reactor from her chest, "you had one last golden egg to give," he finished._

Clint wanted to spit out his hate for the man because more than anything he hated those who let people live only because they wanted something from them and then they executed them. When he had first been starting out as an assassin on the wrong side of the tracks he had a few problems with killing but when he saw what some of the people he was killing were willing to do he became desensitized to it. Only he went too far and started killing innocents for little to no reason and that was when SHIELD found him and changed him into the man he was today. Only underneath it all; they were all as bad as he had once been. Some of them were worse, some of them were like Obadiah Stane.

"_Do you really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?" Obadiah asked her as he leaned over her to look into her eyes. _

"It does if you patent it," Toni said with a smirk, "and I did the moment I got home through private channels so nobody who would leak it to the press would find out about the arc reactor."

"_Your father," Obadiah said obviously determined to hit as many of Toni's sore spots as possible, "he helped give us the atomic bomb. Now, what kind of world would it be if he was as selfish as you?"_

"One where Hiroshima and Nagasaki never happened," Toni muttered. Theoretically she knew that America had developed the atomic bomb and dropped it on those cities because Japan was in the same race and would probably have dropped bombs on American cities. But all she remembered was seeing the photos of what they had done when they were little and being horrified. There was reason none of her weapons had been nuclear despite pressure from Obadiah to make them that way.

_With one final tug he completely severed the connection between the arc reactor and Toni's body and Toni began to die as the shrapnel resumed its journey towards her heart. Obadiah disconnected the arc reactor from the device he had used to remove it and looked at it admiringly telling Toni, "Oh, it's beautiful."_

"I've never really thought about any kind of technology being beautiful," Steve said recognising the phrase that Toni tended to use often to describe her bots. Personally, he couldn't understand how an interlocking system of nuts and bolts could have any form of beauty which was a term he reserved for things created by god and not by humans.

"Everything has a form of beauty," Toni told him, "sometimes people just can't see it."

_Obadiah smiled widely at Toni telling her, "Toni, this is your Ninth Symphony," he took a seat beside her sliding his hand around the back of her head as if they were just having a casual conversation, "What a masterpiece. Look at that. This is your legacy."_

Everybody in the room flinched the moment Obadiah chose to use that word in particular because all of the memories attached to it were ones of Yinsen in that cave telling Toni that she needed a new legacy. And now Obadiah was attempting to steal that away from her once more in an attempt to get rid of his opposition and revert to the path that Stark Industries had once been on.

"_A new generation of weapons with this at its heart," Obadiah told her knowing that there wasn't anything she could do about his plans while paralysed and that she would be dead shortly after, "Weapons that will help steer the world back on course, put the balance of power in our hands."_

For Phil that was one of the worst things Obadiah Stane could have told Toni in that moment because he knew how much she had struggled to obliterate the presence of her weapons from the face of the earth. And here was someone she had once trusted telling her that she was in the wrong and he would always be in the right. The fact that it wasn't true made it almost worse because there was nothing Toni could do to stop him. Of course she had managed to live through this attack as he knew full well and as he had been there when she fought Obadiah the second time even if he hadn't witnessed the whole thing. He wished he'd had a bigger part in bringing the man down now after seeing all the things he had done to Toni.

"_The right hands," Obadiah insisted staring down at the arc reactor before picking up his briefcase and opening it to get ready to leave, "I wish you could see my prototype. It's not as…" he paused for a minute as he put away the arc reactor, "Well, not as conservative as yours."_

"I never thought I'd hear the word conservative used to describe that suit," Bruce said with the barest hints of a smile. It was hard to think of anything positive when they were watching Toni die on screen but as Toni had obviously survived it was probably a good idea to stop the room from sinking back into chaos by lightening the mood a little.

"His would never have worked long term," Toni told him, "ostentatious to the point of being extremely difficult to operate and the overly mechanised nature of it would have caused it to become inoperable. But there was always the chance he would improve his design and that needed to be stopped at all costs."

_Toni's breaths were obviously becoming more difficult for her to take as Obadiah delivered one last cutting remark before leaving, "Too bad you had to involve Piper in this. I'm sure you would have preferred that he lived."_

If it hadn't been Lady Toni's wish that they stop cursing a dead man Thor was pretty sure he would have thrown Mjolnir through the screen. Because it was one thing to try and take someone's life away from them but to promise them that the ones they loved would follow them was another matter entirely. He wondered if Lady Toni had felt responsible for Obadiah's threat towards Piper. It was likely as he knew that Lady Toni often blamed herself for things that weren't truly her fault.

**A/n: Okay, this A/N is going to be really fucking long so feel free to skip it if you want to. I'm not going to go into specifics as to why I was ill for several reasons. I didn't get out of hospital that long ago and since then my mother restricted my computer time making it very hard for me to type this chapter out and get it to you. Below is a thank you to everyone who wished me well. And to the coward; I think you got smacked down enough already :) I don't know how many of my other Guests are the same person so I will address you all separately.**

**NalaNShinobi (I'm so glad that you like this story. And no, IM3 was incredible but it just doesn't fit in with this verse and none of the others will either so they don't exist here.)**

**chibi heishi (I think I squealed out loud several times when reading the nice things you said about this story. Thank you so much)**

**Guest #1**

**amy (Those facts made me smile a lot so thank you :) And thanks for the teddy bear and balloon)**

**AliseEve**

**MRose5 (That will happen in one of the sequels :) )**

**Guest #2 (Did you read my mind and find out one of my plans? Don't reveal all my ideas now. No, but they will find out eventually)**

**kits-hold-their-tears**

**Guest #3**

**ReenReen**

**Guest #4**

**Guest #5 (The device paralyses you but doesn't kill you. Toni was only dying because of the arc reactor being removed. So, I've always seen it as him being the only one left alive.)**

**Guest #6 (They won't come in until the sequels but they will technically be MCU fics so they're all the same verse so I'm keeping them in. And I always see Tobey Maguire as Spiderman still so TAS doesn't exist.)**

**Alexandria-reid-Winchester (I don't think anyone could chew out that coward as well as you just did :D As a demisexual woman thank you very much)**

**Guest #7 (I'm not sure yet but it may be a pairing I will look into. Sif will come into this fic primarily as a friend for Natasha and Toni at first)**

**Domergal'16 (No! While it was amazing IM3 is not canon in this universe)**

**Guest #8 **

**HockeyGal09**

**Worried**

**Guest #9**

**Stiles Holmes**

**anon reader**

**ccsakurahime**

**exileena**

**Guest #10**

**XxXSilverShadowXxX**

**Maeleana**

**Bubblesturtles (Thank you that means a lot :) And the films after this will be IM2, Thor & Captain America)  
The Dark Lady55 (Don't die! And please don't hit me with a fish I was ill)  
Guest #11**

**ladynarutochan**

**twilightjazz**

**CatherineS (Hey fellow Scot :) I'm really glad you like this story)**

**Orangepaint**

**kiwipoker**

**MrBushid0**

**KayNightshade**

**QUEENOFTHEDEMONS  
ficlover106**

**Virgo A. Reisling**

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**iantoharkness4ever**

**Smiles123**

**moonyrocks13**

**Dragones**

**Post U Later**

**babyliss12**

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**CKCT101 (He will in the sequel but not in this one)**

**WayToPretty**

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**fiction reading chick**

**TricksterOfPanem**

**youwannabekate**

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**XxxBellaBellaxxX**

**I'm crying again because I never thought the list would be that long at all. You guys all rock. Okay, so this has been very long and I will end it with this. I may not be able to update daily until I fully recover and I hope you can forgive me for that but I hope it will never rest for that long again.**

**Yours So Happy To Be Back,**

**Karma xxx**


	58. A Close Call

Chapter 57 – A Close Call

**A/n – It feels really good to be back because I really have missed all of you. The flood of emails to my inbox once I posted that last chapter almost made me cry I swear. So thank you all so much! Still waiting for AliseEve to tell me what she wants for a oneshot. **

**JazzNProwl's sparklingAriaFyre: Late or not it is lovely to have you :) I'm glad you liked that section and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**HockyGal09: Thank you! Good to hear from you again :)  
**

**Frostfire613: I've seen it and it was amazing :) I only just saw it a couple of days ago so I'm still on an MCU high. **

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Thank you :) Glad you liked the chapter**

**TwilightNewMoonEclipseMidnight: Hope you like the chapter :D  
**

**Gleek221: That's very flattering, I'm glad that you were looking forward to it.**

**Alexandria-reid-Winchester: I'm relatively okay don't worry about me :) I'm sure the ninja monkeys would have enjoyed that and I wouldn't have minded even though the opinions of people who are cowardly enough to hate on anon actually make me laugh. **

**Ashtree1165: It's so sweet to hear that so many people were worried about me because I never expected it. Glad you liked it and I hope I do that scene justice for you.**

**Virgo A. Reisling: I'm so glad that you still like this story. I was kind of worried that because of the gap it would be awkward to read. It's nice to know that it wasn't.**

**ReadPaxJoy: So glad that you liked it :) I had to have Bruce hulk out at some point didn't I? :D  
**

**SparkleNicole: I'm so glad that it lived up to your expectations. I was so worried about it.**

**chibi heishi: I'm always so relieved when someone likes Thor because it's him that I am the most scared will be OOC because I'm never sure quite how to write him. I'm happy that you liked the rest as well :D  
**

**Post U Later: I'm so glad that you liked it! Those are the two pairings in the sequels so I'm glad they're coming across well. I have no idea what they would be called so I'll just keep calling them Science Bros in my head. **

**LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Glad to be back :D And glad that you enjoyed the chapter.**

**Booklover2526: I'm really glad that you liked it and it is very good to be back.**

**Guest: So you're the mind-reading one :D I'm looking forward to writing Thor's reaction to the Toni/Natasha/Sif friendship. I see your point and I'm glad you were so polite about it but I just don't like Betty's character and I never have so I can't pair her up with Bruce in my stories. **

**Dragones: Thank you :)**

**ccsakurahime: So glad it exceeded your expectations. **

**LianaDare8: I can't really put IM3 in because it isn't canon for this story although it was incredible.**

**psycholady141: I'm really glad that you like it and thank you very much.**

**princessabbie10: It's good to be back and thank you that means a lot :)**

**ladynarutochan: Thank you very much :D It would be a lot of fun to punch Obadiah in the face :)**

**CatherineS: I don't think he'll be in this story primarily because I don't think I can bring anyone else in. But he will definitely appear in the sequels for sure.**

**youwannabekate: And the award for the most enthusiastic response goes to… KATE! Heya :) It's good to be back **

**TricksterOfPanem: So glad that you liked it.**

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**Harm Marie: I'm glad**

**ThatOneFan: I'm glad that while you're not the biggest fan of what I've done with Piper that you understand my motivations for making him that way. That means a lot to me because I sometimes wonder if I made that clear enough. Thank you for your comment about the relationship issue because what I'm trying to establish is close friendships first. This isn't the romance part of the story and I'm glad that seems to be coming across to you. Yes I am, and yes they're in order. I figured that other than Avengers Assemble that is the chronological order in the MCU universe. CA is a bit iffy but it ends the closest to Avengers Assemble :) Hope you continue to enjoy this story**

**Bubblesturtles: I'm really glad that you liked the chapter and the story in general :D And you are very welcome :)**

**nessa11997: I'm glad you liked it and it was your favourite :D This one is shorter but I hope you still enjoy it.**

Upon seeing how tense all of the other people in the room were Toni racked her brain to try and come up with something she could say to calm them down at least a little. Obviously the fact that she was still alive wasn't enough because she had reiterated that many a time and it seemed to only be a temporary solution. She thought at least Bruce, Phil, Natasha and Clint would have enough sense to realise that nothing terrible had happened to her if she was sitting right there. Especially since Phil had seen her shortly after this during the incident at Stark Industries. Finally she settled on saying, "you know this particular part will be over soon so you don't need to glare at the screen to get it to stop."

It wasn't the most eloquent way she could have put it but it seemed to lessen the glares for now so it was an improvement at least. As long as she could get her television through the next few minutes it would probably outlast the rest of the movies. Not that she thought in any way that hers was going to be the worst movie of the lot. She was sure the others had gone through things that were just as bad but if they managed to get through this she hoped that her appliances would be relatively safe. As safe as they could be with Thor around anyway.

_The scene changed to show a shot of the Malibu cityscape before zooming in on Rhodey's car where he was on the phone with Piper, "What do you mean he paid to have Toni killed? Piper, slow down. Why would Obadiah… Okay, where's Toni now?"_

"So that's how you got out of it?" Steve said relieved believing that he had found the way Toni had managed to survive. He had no idea what prolonged time without the arc reactor in her chest would do to Toni. And if it did have any nasty effects the reactor must have been out of her chest for long enough to do the damage. But that wasn't something that Steve wanted to dwell on because he knew Toni was about to go off and fight and the thought of her fighting with a debilitating injury once again was terrifying.

"Not exactly," Toni said, "but you'll see in a minute so there is no point in nagging me into telling you about it."

_Once again the scene changed to show Piper walking through the SHIELD building with Coulson and several other Agents as he told Rhodey, "I don't know. She's not answering her phone. Please go over there and make sure everything's okay. Thank you Rhodey." Then he hung up and turned to Phil, "I know a shortcut."_

"Normally I'd criticise him for believing that just because you weren't answering your phone you were in some kind of trouble," Clint said, "but considering he just found out Obadiah wanted to kill you and the fact that he currently doesn't know Obadiah's location it is kind of justified."

"And yet Annie still had to get herself out of it no doubt," Natasha said having deduced that if Rhodey didn't get there in time then the only person left to save Toni was Toni herself. As usual! Not that she blamed Piper or Rhodey really because neither of them had been clued in about Obadiah until it was too late to stop his physical and psychological attack on Toni.

_Rhodey veered off suddenly onto the street that led to Toni's house as Toni herself looking pale and weak flung herself into the elevator at her house barely able to stay upright at this stage. The elevator descended quickly down to the lab level and slid open as Toni pushed her way out using the walls gasping for breath._

Clint had taken to muttering the words, 'come on Toni,' under his breath as he watched the scene and doubtless would continue doing so until Toni was shown to have an arc reactor back in her chest. Natasha was fingering one of the knives that she kept within her sleeve as if any second (despite Toni's warnings) it was going to shatter the screen the movie was showing on. The others were sitting on the edge of their seats once again ignoring the fact that Toni was _in the room. _What would it take to get through to these people? Toni literally didn't know anymore. What she did know was that if they ruined her sitting room they were going to be the ones clearing it up. Not the bots.

_She pushed open the main door to the lab space using it to hold herself up and her gaze zeroed in on her old arc reactor which still sat in its glass box on her work station. _

"I'd forgotten about that but of course it's the obvious solution," Bruce said relieved. He guessed it was a good thing that Piper was sentimental when Toni wasn't because if he wasn't Toni's chances of living through Obadiah's attack would have been zero.

_Unfortunately when she took a step forward Toni was no longer able to sustain her body weight on her weakened legs anymore and she toppled forwards and hit the ground chest first._

"Would that have…?" Steve asked and he didn't even need to finish his question before Toni had a reply for him, "yes, I hit the floor hard enough that it probably jolted the shrapnel a bit but it would have been erratic so some of it would actually have been pushed further away." She had been anticipating that question ever since she realised this scene was going to be in the movie.

_Toni grabbed a hold of the wheel of one of her cars as she pulled herself across the floor using her arms. She shoved equipment from the floor away as she made steady, difficult progress towards the desk._

"It's a very good thing that you can do a lot when your motivated Toni," Bruce said admiringly, "otherwise you would never have been able to survive this."

"You could just put it the way the rest of the world does and tell me I'm stubborn," Toni said with a smile, "it doesn't bother me. In fact I take it as a compliment at this stage."

"You would," Natasha said cracking a smile for the first time since the scene with Obadiah.

_After a few agonising moments she was close enough to the desk to make an attempt at grabbing the glass case and hauled herself up using a box of parts that she had left on the floor. She managed to reach one hand up accidentally pushing it a way a little but managing to grab onto the book it sat on and pull that towards her instead. But it was obviously hard for her to keep a firm grip so eventually she let it slip through her fingers and had a rather messy landing as her torso plummeted back towards the ground._

"I thought you said Rhodey didn't save you," Clint said wondering how she had gotten out of it because it was clear that she didn't have the physical strength to retrieve the old arc reactor at this point even if mentally she had the willpower to attempt it.

"And he didn't," Toni told him truthfully.

'_Well then who did?' _Clint thought but decided not to say this out loud knowing that for Toni to survive it would have to have happened soon in the movie timeline and so he would find out without needing to ask. Asking would just irritate Toni who was obviously still annoyed that they had ruined many pieces of her highly expensive furniture.

_She just lay there resigned to what was going to happen for a second before Dummy made a distressed noise in the background and lowered the glass case containing the arc reactor into her hand._

"Your robotic assistants always seem to know what to do in a crisis," Thor boomed, "even if they cannot help with something ordinary."

"As long as they still are salvageable then I will always rebuild my bots exactly as they are if they get injured," Toni said, "because their personalities mean they've learned what is really important."

_Dummy said something else to Toni and she responded with a quick, "good boy!" before she leaned over and managed to smash the glass case against the ground freeing the arc reactor within._

**A/n: This chapter is short but this way you guys only have to go a day without any kind of update for this verse which is an achievement I am happy to have made. Hope you guys like this chapter :D**


	59. The Real Fight Begins

Chapter 58 – The Real Fight Begins

**A/n – We're finally getting into the fight scenes again so I hope that you enjoy the way I'm going to write them. I'm hoping that this will go up pretty soon so you don't have to wait too long :)**

**XxxBellaBellaxxX: Glad you liked it and hope you enjoy the start of the fighting in this chapter. **

**TwilightNewMoonEclipseMidnight & Cry-Pom: Thank you :)**

**BrendaBanner1234: I'm glad that you liked this story :D  
**

**ReadPaxJoy: As long as it doesn't injure the pillow pet XD I'm glad that you liked it and honestly surprised that it made you emotional as I didn't think it was my best.**

**moonyrocks13: I know and that's why I love writing her so much because it fills in a gap in fics where I feel there shouldn't be one. **

**ThatOneFan: Those are the bits I probably enjoy writing the most so I'm glad that you're looking forward to them. I might have enjoyed Hulk more if it was Mark Ruffalo doing it but alas it wasn't. And I already had plans to put that bit in as an extra in between IM1 and IM2 although I'll probably put it through some editing to make it fit with my Toni :)  
**

**Post U Later: I figured I had to have that realisation at some point or it would get really annoying for the rest of the movies. Hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Mythfan: Don't worry I'm a stickler for continuity so Betty will definitely get a mention she just won't appear onscreen. Glad that you liked it.**

**babyliss12: I'm pretty sure anybody who's ever hurt one of the Avengers who made it out alive is trembling in their shoes at this stage.**

**rianess: I just prefer replying on the story itself to be honest and sometimes everyone needs to see some of the things I say. I'm glad that you like this story :)  
**

**ladynarutochan, LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books, Harm Marie & nessa11997: Glad you liked it**

**TricksterOfPanem: Yay! I'm glad :) That sounds accurate because my reactions were similar too**

**chibi heishi: Dummy appreciation is always good :D Toni is perhaps the most calm of them outwardly because of her masks but there will be a couple of times when she gets really angry.**

**LianaDare8 & BlueRoseRabbit: Hopefully I will :)**

**JazzNProwl's sparklingAriaFyre: Dummy's always been one of my favourite parts of the IM movies :D**

**twilightjazz: I've got so many projects right now that I probably won't be able to but if I do get a chance I will. I probably won't though so don't count on it.**

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Toni knew that what was left of this movie wouldn't be easy for her but at least from now on the attempts to kill her were now more blatant. Obadiah started using missiles instead of words and trickery which meant he became just like every other villain they had ever faced off against. She didn't know how close the others had been to those they fought against personally but she hoped none of them had been as close as she was to Obadiah and Thor was to Loki. For the worst sort of betrayal was one that was close to home as she knew well. Everyone around her seemed to give up on her and betray her at some point. Natasha, Rhodey, Obadiah and her mother and father were only a few of those. Was it something to do with her that meant nobody considered her actions to be the right ones?

_The scene changed to show the back of a suit that resembled the Mark I only it was much bigger and bulkier and obviously built primarily for weaponry. Obadiah was shown standing in front of it staring reverently as he held Toni's arc reactor in his hands._

This didn't help the tense atmosphere in the room because it was just another reminder that they hadn't actually seen if Toni had the strength to put the old one in yet. It was also a sickening reminder of what Obadiah had done to Toni and that wasn't what any of them needed right now as they attempted to stay calm. Honestly their only motivation for not getting angry enough to destroy things again was the glare that Toni would give them if they did after she had specifically asked them not to. That would not be at all pretty.

_Eventually he stopped staring and stepped forward towards his version of the suit and carefully slotted the arc reactor into the chest piece. Instantly the noises of machinery powering up flared to life and Obadiah smirked satisfied at his work._

"As if he did anything but take the arc reactor," Bruce snarled when he saw the expression on Obadiah's face, "he has shown no evidence of having any technological skill at any point so far. And the fact that he got scientists to do everything for him and couldn't understand why they weren't moving quickly proves it."

"Why do you I was still around at this point?" Toni said bluntly, "he needed me. But once he had the Jericho missile he thought normal scientists would be able to make progressions from there that I was unwilling too. That and he probably incorrectly assumed that JARVIS would release my other plans after my death."

Natasha flinched a little as she heard Toni refer to events that might have happened after her death so callously. She was sure it unnerved everyone else in the room as well but perhaps it affected her and Phil the most. They were the ones who had been with her when she had been dying of palladium poisoning and she hadn't been doing all she could to save herself. Natasha wasn't fooled into thinking that Toni hadn't come up with the idea of trying to synthesise a new element herself after all known ones had failed. She was a lot smarter than the agents at SHIELD who had come up with it after all. She just hadn't bothered because her life didn't have that much meaning to her. That was worrying. But Natasha was still not in favour of a plan where they would go rushing in to destroy Toni's walls because she knew that would do so much more harm than good. No matter how frustrating it was they had to keep going at Toni's pace or they might drive her to do something really stupid.

_Back at the Malibu mansion all was quiet until Rhodey entered calling out, "Toni?" repeatedly. He quickly noticed the silence of the mansion which clearly worried him because usually JARVIS would reply or you would hear Toni's music blaring from the lab. Upon seeing the empty living room his first instinct was naturally to head straight down to the lab._

"At least he knows that," Natasha admitted glad that Rhodey seemed to know at least some facets of Toni's personality. But she knew that you didn't have to spend long with Toni to pick up that she was hardly ever out of her lab so it wasn't all that impressive.

_He called out Toni's name again as he stepped through the shattered glass wall of the lab and was immediately struck with worry as he spotted Toni lying motionless on the floor clutching onto the podium of the first reactor surrounded by shattered glass._

Clint swore under his breath at the image as it honestly looked like Toni was dead. He of course knew that she wasn't (she seemed to have a propensity for being near death but avoiding it by an inch) but it was an image that he never wanted fixed in his mind. Now he knew that every time Toni fell on the battlefield even if she was within her suit that image would be all he could see. And that would be problematic given that if Toni knew they were stressing about her on the battlefield it would affect their team dynamic.

_Rhodey instantly sprinted over to her side and rolled her over startling Toni who flung her arms up in the air to push Rhodey away revealing the old arc reactor had been placed in her chest._

The sigh of relief that came from everyone in the room but Toni was clearly audible as it seemed to happen in unison. Toni rolled her eyes at it but inwardly she was slightly touched that they were so worried about her. She couldn't say that about many people before she ended up with this gig and despite her reluctance at first she was rather pleased to be part of something for once.

"_Toni!" Rhodey exclaimed after getting a good look at the state Toni was in, "You okay?"_

"That's was a bit of a stupid question," Phil scoffed. It was obvious that Toni was not okay but the important thing was that she was alive at all. From the look on Rhodey's face when he discovered her Phil could guess that he had figured out that Obadiah had made another attempt on Toni's life so he probably should have been checking Toni over instead of asking questions which had obvious answers.

_Toni clung onto Rhodey's arms and used them to pull herself back up off the floor as she was obviously still too weak to do it herself as she asked urgently although her voice was obviously cracking, "where's Piper?"  
_

Steve smiled a little at that admiring Toni's concern for her friend. Of course it meant the return of the guilt he had been feeling a lot of earlier about his comment to Toni about her not caring about anyone. She had nearly died and yet her first concern was for her friend rather than for herself. Mind you she had already shown that she didn't care about her own life as much as she should. What worried Steve the most was how she had got to that point and how much his old friend had been responsible.

"_She's fine," Rhodey reassured her knowing he wasn't going to get anywhere otherwise, "She's with five agents. They're about to arrest Obadiah."_

"_That's not going to be enough," Toni told him seriously as she scrambled to her feet._

Bruce frowned a little at seeing Toni's haste to get back in action. Of course he knew that it was necessary for her to stop Piper being killed and rid the world of Obadiah Stane but from a medical standpoint he would have been reluctant to allow it. She had nearly died and by the looks of it the shrapnel must have been very close to her heart before she managed to get the arc reactor back in. It was inadvisable for her even to try and walk let alone fly an extremely heavy piece of machinery. He didn't even want to know what shape she had been in after the fight was over.

Phil cut off his train of thought when he chimed in with, "it wasn't but we never expected a man with no defence training and no significant technological know-how to have succeeded in making a halfway decent weapon."

_The array of SHIELD cars pulled up outside the doors to the Stark Industries factory building and Phil climbed out of the lead car with Piper in tow. Piper used his card to let them into the building and they all filed in behind him. Piper muttered, "Section 16," a couple of times as he looked around before spotting it and exclaiming, "there it is."_

"Why doesn't Mr Potts know the way to that Section Lady Toni?" Thor asked puzzled. He had assumed that Piper would know his way around if he was Toni's PA because that was where Toni worked.

"Piper doesn't have access to every room in the premises," Toni told him, "some are sealed off because it's dangerous for someone without training to go in there and some are sealed off because they're private areas. I have access everywhere but I'm rarely in the factory because I prefer to work at home so Piper doesn't exactly need to know where those areas are."

_Piper used his pass on the reader next to the door but it didn't grant him access. He decided to try again just in case but got the same result so he turned to Phil and told him exasperatedly, "my key's not working. It's not opening the door."_

"Obviously," Clint muttered under his breath. He made sure that Toni couldn't hear him but he wasn't bothered about anybody else. Despite Toni's hopes the Avengers and Piper were not as friendly as she thought they were going to be. They did their best to get along in front of her but the truth was his first impression had been bad because of his overprotectiveness and that had only continued afterwards.

_Phil held out his hand and another one of the agents handed him something as Piper inquired, "what's that? It's, like, a little device that's going to pick the lock."_

"I don't think SHIELD has managed to go that advanced with lock picking," Toni scoffed, "they're more likely to blow the thing up first."

"_You might want to take a few steps back," Phil told him and led him over to where the other agents stood as Piper covered his ears. He was the only one that did so as the noise that came from the explosion turned out not to be very loud. It did however succeed in successfully opening the door._

"See what I mean," Toni said rolling her eyes. She had invented a fair amount of tech supported lock picks in her time that would have been able to pick that lock (not that they would have needed to had she been there because she had her card key). She hadn't actually created any great amount of them because she didn't want to commercialize something that could help thieves get their hands on peoples belongings more easily. She had made a few for personal use but she was the only one who knew how to work them so it was no use stealing them from her.

_Obadiah turned alarmed to the door obviously hearing the explosion and quickly activated the power to his suit and ran towards it._

_Back at the mansion a similar process was beginning as the boots of the Mark III suit were fastened onto Toni's feet by JARVIS. As the final touches were put in place Rhodey walked around exclaiming wildly about the suit, "that's the coolest thing I've ever seen."_

"For once I agree with him," Clint said still somewhat in awe of just how complex Toni's suits were.

"_Not bad, huh?" Toni told him with a smile, "Let's do it." She aimed a repulsor blast at the wreckage of the car she had destroyed earlier when she fell through the roof to clear it out of the way and walked over until she was under the hole in the roof. _

"_You need me to do anything else?" Rhodey asked her._

_Toni's mask clicked shut and she told him in the very different voice that was emitted through the voice changer of her suit, "Keep the skies clear," before blasting her way out of the building through the unintentional pathway she had created to the roof._

"I hope you closed that up," Bruce joked half-heartedly, "because it may be California but it does still occasionally rain there."

"Of course," Toni said using a similar tone only sounding more genuine about it, "I turned it into a route out of the lab for the suit only with a cover that could be placed over it. It was too convenient to just plaster over."

"_Damn!" Rhodey said impressed and turning to eye the Mark II suit which was suspended nearby obviously in the midst of repairs saying, "Next time, baby."_

Natasha and Toni both stiffened up at this comment struck by the irony that Rhodey had indeed stolen that very suit when he lost his trust in Toni. But now they were being forced to consider that he might also have been motivated by a desire just to have the suit in general and that was worrying. Because they hadn't known that until that very moment which meant Rhodey had decided to leave that aspect of it out of his apology.

_He clambered into one of Toni's cars and tore off out of the garage on his way to ensure that Toni didn't get shot down by the military for flying again. Back at Stark Industries Phil followed by Piper and his fellow agents opened up the inner door to the lab area of Section 16. As he entered he drew his gun and so did the others as they entered looking around cautiously._

"At least they have enough sense to deal with hostile situations I guess," Toni said rolling her eyes, "I would hope they would but there's clearly no guarantee with SHIELD agents these days."

_As they rounded a corner they came across the original Mark I suit and marvelled at it. Phil turned back to Piper telling him, "it looks like you were right. He was building a suit."_

"Well he was," Phil added, "just not that one. He was copycatting that one."

"_I thought it'd be bigger," Piper responded obviously puzzled as to how Obadiah would fit into a suit that looked like it was built for someone a lot smaller than he was._

"That would be a problem for someone trying to steal your suits," Steve realised, "on top of the security they'd have to send in someone pretty small to be able to fit in them."

_As Phil and the other Agents stood looking over the Mark I suit Piper heard a noise in the background and turned to see if he could see what it was and began to wander towards the sparking electrical cables that hung down from the ceiling where Obadiah's suit had been. Meanwhile Phil and one of the other agents leapt over a barrier onto the walkway down below to try and search the building effectively._

"I have a feeling this isn't going to end well for everyone in that room," Clint interjected, "especially since Obadiah is in a gigantic suit designed for war and you only have handguns with you."

"For once actually all of us managed to get out alive," Phil assured him, "we had a couple of pretty bad injuries but Obadiah wasn't really interested in what we were doing."

_Two others got a glimpse of the schematics for Obadiah's suit on a nearby computer screen but shrugged it off as they didn't see it around anywhere and figured it was just a plan._

"How do you pick your employees at SHIELD?" Bruce said incredulously, "They shouldn't shrug off anything in a potentially hostile situation. You were in a lab where it was obvious something like that could possibly have been created. There were detailed blueprints of it and no evidence that they had attempted to make it and yet they still left the screen alone."

"If it had been me I would've looked into it," Phil said, "but I can't control the actions of agents who have decided to go against SHIELD policy."

_Piper was now right next to the sparking cables and looked up curiously until he was distracted yet again by another noise behind him in the midst of the chains that hung down from the ceiling._

"Oh," Natasha exclaimed realising where Obadiah was hiding in that giant suit. She was wondering how he had concealed himself so effectively in so little time as Phil, Piper and the Agents had been busting in at a rapid pace. But those chains provided a perfect cover for something metal and unfortunately gave him the perfect opportunity to sneak up on Piper. He thought Toni was dead and that there was nothing stopping him from killing off Piper too after all. Natasha hoped that Piper hadn't been too badly injured for while she didn't particularly like him she had gotten a better impression of him than the others. Plus she wouldn't wish grave injuries on someone who had done not much wrong in comparison to the person delivering them. A person whom she would gladly deliver the same injuries to herself if he was still among the living.

_Piper walked over to the very edge of the collection of chains and stared into the blackness of that corner of the room that was quickly illuminated by the eyes of Obadiah's suit. They rose up higher as the suit pulled out of its crouched position and the target of its version of the HUD fixed itself on Piper who backed away his expression a mixture of fear and shock before screaming and running off. _

"For once a sensible reaction," Clint admitted, "you wouldn't believe how many people there are that just freeze up in the face of danger and get themselves killed because they don't know seem to know that they're going to die because they aren't running."

_Piper came sprinting as fast as he could through the agents that were milling around the screens in the main area of the lab as one of the shouted, "Take him out," upon spotting Obadiah and began to fire on the suit. It didn't do them much good as he simply swiped the nearest one out of the way and caused an explosion near Phil that knocked him aside. Piper just kept running not looking back as he tried to save himself._

"How badly injured were you two Friend Coulson?" Thor asked clearly concerned for the man he was slowly getting to know better. It was a relief for him to even have Phil in the room considering the fact that he thought he had seen the other man die in front of him partially due to him being fooled by his brother.

"Agent Kingston had several broken ribs from the collision of the arm with his chest and a shoulder injury from his collision with the wall but made a full recovery," Phil informed Thor, "he now works outside of America. I had a few first degree burns and a couple of scratches but nothing at all serious."

_As Obadiah leapt into the air his suit flew dangerously close to Piper causing massive explosions in its wake destroying the passageway behind Piper but he managed to get out of the way just in time._

"That was far too close for comfort," Clint exclaimed knowing that if Piper had been any slower he'd have been dead for sure.

**A/n: I hope you guys liked this chapter. The fight scenes are coming up next. To test who actually reads these there is a prize for reviewers of this chapter. I am offering to send parts of my notes on this or any of the one shots in this series to you** **if you ask for them in a review. It's your choice what you want to see.**


	60. Iron Man vs Iron Monger

Chapter 59 – Iron Man vs. Iron Monger

**A/n – Okay, so I hit 800 reviews; I think I cried. I probably cried a lot. So .1999 I owe you a oneshot in this verse. Sorry I had to mangle your nickname to get it to stay cause of the censorship thing. Okay this chapter had over 50 reviews so I couldn't respond to them all here. I've messaged you all with replies and anon ones will be answered below.**

**Also I've answered questions about Toni's future relationships about a billion times so please read through all the AN's where I answer questions before asking yours. I'm getting a little tired of answering the same things over and over again.**

**Orangepaint – I hope you haven't traumatised your family too much. My updates aren't worth that. That is one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me so thank you. I have written an original novel last year but I've never shown it to anyone.**

**Queen Apolline – Hopefully you'll be able to get an account one day.**

**Mythfan – I know right. I figure at least some probably have because there is no way people with a lack of common sense like that haven't.**

** .1999 – Congrats on getting the 800****th**** review. I'm so flattered by how much you love my story. I highly doubt mine is the best but I am rather proud of it. **

**Guest #1 – I'm glad you liked how they reacted. Have an update**

**Guest #2 – I have :)**

**Guest #3 – I try and update weekly but unfortunately I can give no confirmation of a time because I'm allowed on my laptop at specific times.**

**Guest #4 – I update as quickly as I can so here's an update :)**

**Noel K-K – I'm flattered that you took the time to work that out. I'm updating as soon as possible but it's not the holiday here yet. It sounds like an interesting idea. Maybe once I'm done with this verse I'll try it. **

**By the way please stop messaging me asking me if I'm okay if I don't update for a while. I'm on an as and when system which means it may take me forever to update. Unless I specifically say I'm not fine just assume my mum took my laptop away.**

"Okay," Toni said interrupting before the real fight scene kicked off and she was actually being beaten up on screen, "I'm only going to say this one last time. Obadiah Stane is dead and gone so there is no point in shouting at him and threatening him. Also _I am still alive _so there is no need to damage my property or worry about me. It's just annoying."

The others were reluctant to agree to those terms however. Not because they were unreasonable, in fact they were well within her rights to request. But because they knew that it would be extremely hard for them to stick to the terms. For while logically they always knew that Toni was sitting in the room and that Stane had long since been dealt with the movie seemed to draw you in and make you forget that. And while it might be annoying for Toni it would be almost impossible to repress. In the end they agreed though. Toni's glare was a little too scary to be subjected to for any amount of time.

The minute they agreed Toni gestured to JARVIS that he should restart the DVD and play the next scene.

_The Iron Man suit soared across the sky at top speed trying to get to the factory as quickly as possible. As she rounded a corner Toni asked JARVIS, "How do you think the Mark I chest piece is going to hold up?"_

"Oh great," Bruce muttered to himself, "something else to worry about." He had never even considered the fact that while the first arc reactor would keep her alive under normal circumstances it wouldn't power the new suit for very long. He had seen how badly it had done with powering the Mark I suit which meant it wasn't likely to last for very long powering the more sophisticated systems of the Mark II.

"_The suit's at 48% power and falling, ma'am," JARVIS informed her, "that chest piece was never designed for sustained flight."_

Now the others suddenly realised the same problem that Bruce had just come up with. Natasha was kicking herself for not realising it earlier having personally gone through the tragedy of Toni's arc reactor failing on her. Maybe her instincts on these things weren't as good as they should be. She'd have to work on that.

"_Keep me posted," Toni told him wanting to make sure she wouldn't get any nasty shocks during the fight which would put her at a disadvantage._

"The one time I've seen you looking out for your own health in any of the films we've seen so far," Phil said pleased that Toni at least had some concept of self-preservation rather than being willing to give up everything for every tiny thing.

Toni however knew that it hadn't really been her own health that had motivated her there. It had been the desire to protect Piper and get rid of Obadiah and that had been it. The chest piece had only had to last until she had done those two things and then if it had cut out she wouldn't really have minded all that much. As she had proven when she had taken a giant risk to get rid of Obadiah in the end.

_She put more power into the thrusters and powered her way towards the factory. As Piper exited the building more relaxed having gotten away from Obadiah he received a call from Toni, "Piper?"_

"_Toni?" Piper said clearly relieved that Toni had gotten in contact with him, "Toni, are you okay?"_

"Prepare for Toni to lie about how healthy she is," Clint said knowing exactly what was coming up next. It was fairly obvious now that he had seen these movies that Toni was excellent about diverting attention away from things she didn't want you to ask about. Specifically her personal health.

"_I'm fine," Toni lied, "How are…?"_

_She was interrupted by Piper exclaiming, "Obadiah, he's gone insane!" as he turned back to face the factory building._

"Something's going to appear behind him," Steve said knowing there was too much focus on the space behind Piper for that not to happen.

"_I know," Toni told Piper simply not wanting to waste her breath giving long responses. She knew every moment counted at this point because she would have to fight soon, "listen you'd better get out of there!"  
_

"Good idea," Bruce acknowledged, "get everyone you can out of the area. Although somehow I doubt that's how that went down." None of them were ever lucky enough to have no civilians in the surrounding area when they were in the middle of a fight. Besides Piper often seemed to end up in the middle of situations with Toni if the snippets of conversation he had heard between them about it were any indication.

"_He built a suit," Piper said not listening to the instructions Toni was giving him causing her to exclaim, "get out of there right now!"  
_

"You'd think people would listen to you when you're the one in the possession of an iron suit and all the facts," Toni sighed remembering how often she had to order civilians to get out of her way whilst on missions.

_But Toni's voice was barely audible over the rumbling sound coming from behind Piper as the pavement sprung up due to a disturbance beneath the surface. The Iron Monger suit rose from the ground and pulled itself out of the hole it had created._

"Damn it," Steve said softly to himself. Sometimes he hated it when he was right about things.

"_Where do you think you're going?" came Obadiah's voice from inside the suit._

Natasha scowled at Obadiah's insistence on killing Piper just to get back at Toni whom he already thought dead. She hadn't materialised in the near vicinity yet so he had no way of knowing that she was really alive and could have just left Piper alone. But Obadiah was intent on getting revenge on Toni even if she wouldn't know about it.

_Piper took a few staggered steps back obviously shocked by the sudden appearance of the Iron Monger suit. As the suit advanced on Piper he cried out knowing that there wasn't much he could do against it except attract attention._

"_Your services are no longer required," Obadiah said sinisterly as he levelled one of his many weapons and directed it at Piper._

"Why does everything the man says have to be some cliché villain line?" Clint said annoyed, "honestly you'd think he'd come up with something better to say than that."

"Okay so Obadiah is about to try and kill both Piper and Toni and you're concerned with how he's speaking," Natasha said incredulously staring at Clint in disbelief.

"Fair point," Clint acknowledged deciding to keep quiet about his annoyance for the things Obadiah was saying from now on. There were more important things going on in the movie after all.

_As the machine gun whirred into life Toni soared down from the sky calling out the name, "Stane!" as loud as she could to draw attention away from Piper._

"That was very noble of you," Steve pointed out trying to get into the habit of complimenting Toni for her actions. He still had the problem of judging Toni for everything so if he could see things she genuinely did right then he might begin thinking about the other things more positively.

"It was common sense," Toni said confused by Steve choosing to compliment something so obvious even he must have realised it, "I was the one with the protective armour suit."

_Seeming not to react to the shock he must have been feeling Stane automatically turned his machine gun on Toni. The bullets clattered off the suit as she drew closer and closer. As they collided she sent them both flying through the hole in the pavement Obadiah had made which resulted in them flying out of a wall and through a truck on the freeway. There was a shower of sparks and then the pair came to a halt right in the middle of the road._

"Oh no," Natasha said realising how much more difficult the situation just got for Toni.

"That seems like an accurate assessment," Bruce said his tone just as dismayed, "because I know for a fact Toni will be more concerned for the commuting citizens at this point than about anything else. It just complicated the entire fight."

_One car went ricocheting straight off of Obadiah who was pushing himself up without regards to the cars travelling around him._

"Total disregard for any human life," Clint snarled. Even when he had been on the wrong side of the tracks he had never been as comfortable as Obadiah was there with killing people. And he hadn't even been targeting civilians. He was almost certain that Natasha felt the same way despite what she had been through in the Red Room.

_The truck with a hole in it veered to the side and cars slammed into each other as the entire freeway became a wrecking ground. Yet another car driven by a woman with three kids in the back sped towards the scene every one of them screaming. She slammed on the brake hoping to stop the car before it got to the pair fighting._

Phil distinctly remembered this part in Toni's report. In fact it was one of the few sections when he hadn't had to ask her to elaborate so that the report on the fight would be more accurate. She had obviously been disgusted by Obadiah's actions in attempting to harm an innocent group of people. It was that and many other small quirks of personality that had led to him becoming close friends with her in the first place.

_The car screeched to a halt barely a centimetre away from Obadiah and the woman honked her horn at him obviously not knowing what else she should do in the situation. In response Obadiah simply pushed himself up off the ground and lifted the car up into the air._

The outrage in the room which had already been at a high level before that moment completely exploded at this action. They knew better than to damage anything further than they had already but other than that the Avengers didn't hold back.

Natasha's full vocabulary of Russian swear words and insults flew from her mouth. Toni almost felt like chuckling at some of the more colourful ones but even for her watching this moment was too appalling to do so. Even if it was her second time bearing witness to it. To her the endangerment of innocents just to hurt someone else was the worst thing any of her enemies could do. That was why she kept so many of her emotions under lock and key that she might not have otherwise. It was easier to appear passive and unemotional and be written off as cold than have others be used to get to her. That was also the reason she had been so reluctant to start a relationship with Piper or have it end up in the press. She was trying to protect him from the media circus just as thoroughly as she protected him from villainous people like Obadiah Stane.

Bruce's skin looked a little green but quickly faded as he considered all the innocents that were endangered through any of their battles. It seemed that all villains were not content with just killing the person they had come for. It was just an endless drive to kill for them after they glimpsed the power they could have. That was probably more the case with Toni because getting rid of her economic power as well as her influence would open many doors for a lot of people.

Clint itches to grab his bow and shoot and arrow through the damn TV screen but he doesn't want to upset Toni. Besides he's been told off by JARVIS before for firing arrows inside the house and after the incidents with the foam in the vents he never wants to cross the AI again.

Steve and Thor both had similar reactions to the acts of Obadiah at this point. They had to leave them room because they knew that if they remained then the furniture in the room was going to be damaged irreparably. Toni suspected that they had headed to one of the Hulk proof rooms in the tower that was specially equipped with objects for the big guy to destroy. Considering the state they were in when they got back Toni was almost certain that had been what happened in the end.

**A/n: I'm sorry this isn't very long after so long but I just badly injured my hand again so I'm writing one handed. And I'm off on holiday later today so I may have no internet for a week. That means more writing getting done.**


	61. A Roadside Encounter

Chapter 60 – A Roadside Encounter

**A/n – Hello everyone :) I'm still writing with one hand so forgive me because I know this is very late. And as for the rush of Glee fics a while back. Those were all written prior to my injury so don't worry about me switching focus. I'm changing things up with replies a little too. If you said something specific I'll reply to you in here but I have too many reviews to reply to all the small ones. But I love you all. I really do.**

**JazzNProwl's sparklingAriaFyre: Thank you :) I did have a lot of fun on my holiday. I know… tut tut Clint focus on the important stuff.**

**Tabitha: He'll probably make an appearance in an interlude at some point but I don't know when yet. He definitely won't be watching the movies with them.**

**chibi heishi: I've seen plenty guys act more "girly" than the way Piper did in that scene but yes I see your point. The foam makes sense if you read The House Is Alive, it's a reference to that.**

**Post U Later: Yep, still alive. I know :( It's sad but unfortunately that's the way it is with Toni. I get frustrated with her and she's my creation. Although sometimes I think she exists in my head and all I'm doing is writing down what she's telling me to. **

**Mythfan: Don't worry Steve is going to be on a one step forward, two steps back path for a while because that's just the way I see his character. He'll get it eventually.**

**BlazeStryker: I love my savvy Toni. And I agree with you about the mutation aspect of the comics and essentially the movies too. It's wrong but it's unfortunately a reality.**

**domergal'16: It's okay sweetie; I understand why you did it and as you won't do it from now on we're good.**

**Orangepaint: Well the book needs extensive editing and it's about something very personal to me so I would hope that people would like it. Thanks for reviewing again sweetheart. I think you're one of the sweetest anon reviewers I've ever had. Rambling is good ;)**

**EmmyR: I am doing my very best not to abandon this story. I can't promise frequent updates anymore but this will never be dropped completely. Never!**

**TheNightIsDark: I've watched all of the deleted scenes but I decided a while back that I couldn't put any of them in. It's a lot of work just to transcribe everything and going back and forth between movie and deleted scene would be a nightmare. It would have been good though.**

**The Last One Left 0: Excuse me I'm still crying from how touching this was. I don't agree at all but it was touching nevertheless. And every compliment I get on my Thor is a relief because I'm so scared of writing him.**

It took a considerable amount of time before Steve and Thor came back to the room in which time Toni had to confiscate Clint's bow and arrows. He had very nearly fired one of the explosive ones at the screen in the end and she couldn't have that. Not again! Clint looked like he wanted to grab them back but was too scared of Toni to try it. Thankfully the tension was interrupted when Steve came in with Thor following shortly afterwards and they restarted the movie.

_As Obadiah got the car above his head he span back to face Toni and laughed darkly, "I love this suit."_

"No you didn't," Toni stated, "you liked the power that the suit gave you. And the way it could cause destruction and bend people to your will. You never understood what the suit was actually for. A way to escape and a way to protect people. And you certainly never loved the feel of the suit itself because that's shown through the joy of flying and of the operating systems and I can guarantee you never felt it."

The others looked at Toni a little shocked at her calm statement. It hadn't been said in anger there was just a cool sense of knowing. They'd seen her get passionate about her suits before but they could never really imagine how much they meant to her.

"_Put them down!" Toni told him firmly._

"_Collateral damage, Toni," Obadiah insisted as he walked steadily towards her with the car still hoisted above his head. _

"I think he needs a lesson on the definition of collateral damage," Bruce growled out.

"He's still dead," Toni pointed out.

_The lights on the palms of Toni's suit faded out as she gave JARVIS an instruction, "divert power to chest RT." As soon as she gave the order the chest RT began to glow brighter until a burst of light sprung from it and hit Obadiah sending him flying backwards onto a parked car. Meanwhile Toni caught the car Obadiah had been holding in her arms._

"That is very impressive Friend Toni," Thor commented. He always found feats of strength impressive and Toni was remarkably fragile to be doing something like that even with an iron suit. Of course he was smart enough not to say that as he had a feeling Friend Toni would not take it well.

_The weight of the car caused Toni to being to lean back as the women and children inside screamed and clutched at each other. Inside the suit Toni let out a little grunt from the weight as the HUD crackled and JARVIS informed her, "Power reduced to 19%."_

"That's getting dangerously low," Natasha said worried, "you're not going to be able to fly soon and that'll make getting away difficult."

Toni was tired of pointing out that she was still alive and Obadiah was dead hence this had ended well. So she decided just to stop. For now at least.

_The sheer weight of it caused Toni's right leg to buckle and collapse causing her knee to make a dent in the ground. As Toni began to lower the car to the ground the panicked woman slammed her foot down on the accelerator and the wheels began to spin frantically. The minute Toni managed to get it down to the ground the car sped off down the highway with Toni still clinging onto the front._

"Poor woman," Steve said sympathetically. She must have been scared sick after being endangered by a mad man and while Toni had helped her all she would be seeing was just another person in a metal suit who could hurt her and her children.

_Toni did shout out for her to stop but the woman was panicking far too much for that. Eventually Toni began to slip off of the hood of the car leaving drag marks behind as she tried to hold on crying, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"_

"This is not going to end well," Clint said wincing slightly.

_Inevitably Toni lost her grip and went flying underneath the car as sparks flew off everywhere. She got stuck at the back as the helmet of the suit was too big to slide through but she managed to lift the back of the car up just long enough for her to roll clear._

"That looks like it hurt," Natasha said sympathetically.

"It wasn't that bad actually," Toni said with a shrug, "the suit took a few dents but it fits so well that I didn't get banged around too much. The real damage would only have happened if I'd been unable to free myself and been dragged along for a while."

_By the time Toni was free Obadiah was back up on his feet and sprinting towards her. He launched himself into the air flames blazing behind him before landing in front of Toni who had managed to pull herself to her feet. When a motorcyclist drove between the two iron-clad figures Obadiah grabbed hold of his bike and spun it around using it to hit Toni backwards into a nearby parked car._

"So even though he could have used his own strength to throw you back he decided to at least badly injure someone to do it," Phil said darkly glaring at the screen. Toni hadn't mentioned the small details in the report although that was probably more to do with the fact that the battle would have been a blur and she wouldn't have remembered them rather than deliberate withholding of knowledge.

_Toni bounced off of the car setting off its alarm and then clattered to the floor in front of a bus letting out a grunt. The people on the bus seemed to know what was coming as they all began clamouring to get out of it as did people in cars that were even relatively nearby. _

"At least the civilians had the good sense to get away from the situation," Steve said relieved. The more innocent people that got hurt the worse the situation was as far as he was concerned and so far Toni was keeping that to a minimum even sacrificing precious power to save that family.

_Obadiah bounded over to Toni and shoved her across the ground before turning and getting a firm hold on her. Booming, "for thirty years, I've been holding you up!" he held her up to the sky before dropping her mercilessly on to the ground sparks flying off the suit after the collision. _

"Yes it was starting to hurt a little that point," Toni told them after receiving inquiring looks from everyone in the room, "honestly, you'd think you were watching this live."

"_I built this company from nothing," he cried as he brought his foot down with a thump straight onto the chest plate of Tonis's suit._

"Oh please," Natasha scoffed, "Howard Stark started the company up which meant it was a long way from nothing. And without Toni's inventions you wouldn't have gotten anywhere and the company would have become nothing after Howard's death."

"Thank you for saying it so I didn't have to Tasha," Toni said with a smile for her friend.

_Then as Toni tried to push her way up again he grabbed hold of the back of the suit growling, "and nothing is going to stand in my way," as he threw her through the bus. _

"Ouch," Clint said sympathetically as several other people in the room winced.

_Obadiah took a few steps away from the bus before turning and raising a missile from the back of his suit. His last words before firing it were, "least of all you!" Then the laser sights honed in on the bus and the missile fired sending it up in flames._

"It's ironic that his only worry was apparently the company," Phil said with a slight smile, "and nowadays Stark Industries is more successful than it's ever been in its entire history thanks to Toni's new direction and leadership."

_The explosion encompassed the whole road rippling around Obadiah as Toni flew up at the top of it her arms flailing around a little. As she began to tumble back down she activated her repulsors to maintain a steady hover a fair way off the ground avoiding a crash._

"Nicely done," Bruce complimented trying to hide how relieved he was. As a doctor he knew that if Toni had hit the ground after that she would have banged her head around quite a bit in the helmet and probably badly injured it. Fighting with a concussion was not something Toni needed to be doing when she was already having problems with her arc reactor. Or at all really.

"_Impressive!" Obadiah laughed genuinely, "You've upgraded your armour! I've made some upgrades of my own!"_

"I do not think that this will end well," Thor predicted guessing that Stane's upgrades probably involved flight which eliminated Toni's advantage of being able to take to the sky.

"My question is how did he not notice that Toni was able to fly earlier," Steve pointed out, "she crashed into him from the sky when he was first attacking Piper."

_The backs of the boots of the Iron Monger suit lowered with a series of clicks and hisses before a huge amount of smoke and fire began to emerge from them and Obadiah began to slowly lift off of the ground._

"I was right," Thor stated obviously but nobody had the heart to point this out to him. So they simply nodded and offered him a smile which seemed to be the right path to take because he looked rather pleased with himself.

"_Ma'am, it appears that his suit can fly," JARVIS told Toni flatly bringing up the specs from the suit up on the HUD._

"_Duly noted," Toni said quickly, "take me to maximum altitude."_

"That's going to be pretty dangerous," Natasha said worriedly.

"Still alive," Di muttered under her breath needing to say it even if it couldn't be heard. Honestly, did all logic disappear for the other members of the group when they were watching these movies?

"_With only 15% power the odds of reaching that…" JARVIS rattled off as Toni looked down at Obadiah slowly approaching her._

"_I know the math! Do it!" Toni shouted over him knowing it was her only option._

"I'm beginning to agree with Piper," Clint admitted, "risky moves do seem to be your forte Toni."

"You have to take risks in my main line of work all the time," Toni said with a shrug, "or nothing would ever get done. So I guess that translates to when I get suited up. It works too and I've gotten away every single time so far so you shouldn't be complaining about my tactics Robin Hood."

_She turned to face up the way and sped off at a much faster speed than Obadiah. Back outside the factory Piper watched on seeing the Iron Monger suit rise slowly above the wall which blocked it off from the highway._

"I have a feeling this is about to get interesting," Phil said remembering the basics of this parts of Toni's report.

**A/n: It's short cause of the issues with my hand I'm sorry. But I finally got you a chapter :) Hopefully the next won't take as long.**


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